Call for 'winnable' ethnic candidates

Scotland's politicians have been challenged to put their "money where there mouths are" on race representation and put forward ethnic minority candidates in winnable seats for the next parliamentary elections.

In a clear signal that ethnic minorities are running out of patience with the political system that has so far failed to represent them, leading anti-race campaigners have accused the mainstream parties of tokenism by ignoring institutional racism within their own ranks, while supporting the Scottish Executive's (pounds) 1m equality campaign One Scotland.

Dharmendra Kanani, director of the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland, has revealed that the organisation approached all of Scotland's mainstream parties six months ago with proposals to open a dialogue on the recruitment of ethnic minority members and the selection of candidates.

So far, the Labour party and the LibDems have failed to meet with the CRES to discuss the issue although the CRES has been offered input into the Labour party manifesto.

"There's a lot of soul searching in the political parties on this issue but it would be a measure of them putting their money where their mouths are by selecting minority candidates," said Kanani. "All the parties have to move away from having a sense of guilt about the lack of representation and make ethnic minorities part of the body politic."

Having made direct abuse unacceptable, race campaigners now feel that the biggest problem in tackling discrimination in Scotland is in institutional racism and the lack of representation of minorities. "They were determined to have women in the first Scottish parliament, in places where they can have influence, why can't we do the same with Scotland's visible minorities?" asked Robina Qureshi, the director of the anti-racist housing charity, Positive Action in Housing.

Qureshi, frustrated with the platitudes of political parties on the representation of minorities, has called for the selection processes to be short-cut in order to get candidates into winnable seats.

The IPPR, the left wing think tank favoured by 10 Downing Street, has suggested similar action in Westminster elections in order to counter the disconnection of minority communities from mainstream politics. Labour has four approved candidates from ethnic minorities for next year's elections but has still to complete its selection for the lists and constituencies.

Labour's social justice minister, Margaret Curran MSP, who is charged with delivering the Executive's equality policy, has admitted that her own party has to make progress on the issue. "We have to move away from just having candidates, that's not enough we need candidates to win," said Curran.

"Labour has Asian councillors and an Asian MP but I would be hopeful that the Labour party would put minority candidates in a position to win in the future.

"Its not likely that we'll go down the positive discrimination route because legally its prohibitive but we have to do as much as we can to push people I think there is a political understanding in the Scottish Labour party that wasn't there 10 years ago, that we need to have people from a variety of backgrounds. We have to actively encourage people from different backgrounds to join the party and stand for the party."

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