Greens outline electoral campaign

With a degree of confidence not normally held by minority parties, the Green Party has announced that it will be fielding over 1,300 candidates in this year’s local elections, contesting over a quarter of the 4,000+ council seats that are up for grabs in May. They are apparently upbeat about making gains in several of the London boroughs, and are targetting areas such as Oxford where they already hold the balance of power and also performed better than any other minority parties in the 2005 general election.

My personal view is that this may be the first chance that the Greens have at gaining enough seats to be considered a proper political force instead of their current status as a left-wing minority party. I can’t really comment on their chances in other areas, but I think that there’s a real possibility of them gaining a seat in one of the Manchester areas if they mount a good campaign and target the right wards.