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Saturday
20  April

Historic hustings to go online for the first time

 
26/04/2021 @ 07:08
A key event at election time is having to go online for the first time due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Montgomery always hosts a county hustling for UK and Welsh Parliament elections, attracting all the candidates involved.

However, this year, like Newtown's hosting, it will take place online on Thursday, 29 April.

Newtown Town Council will host its hustings online on Wednesday.


The event is being run independently by the Monty Hour community group on this occasion and will be chaired by former Montgomery Mayor, Mark Michaels. 

One of the organisers, Gwil Stephenson, said: “The Monty Hour team volunteered to take on the task of running a Montgomery Hustings after consulting with the Town Clerk and the Mayor.

"In part we have taken on the task because one candidate is also a Town Councillor and, in this instance, we think a hustings independent of the Town Council is a good idea.

"We are also experienced in hosting online discussions having run weekly Monty Hour sessions throughout this year. The town usually hosts a well-attended hustings and our aim is to provide an online version.” 

The candidates for Montgomeryshire have all confirmed their attendance. They are: Alison Alexander - Welsh Liberal Democrats; Kait Duerden - Welsh Labour; Gwyn Evans - Gwlad; Russell George - Welsh Conservative; Oliver Lewis - Reform UK; and Elwyn Vaughan - Plaid Cymru (listed alphabetically).

The hustings event will begin at 7.30pm using the Zoom video conferencing platform, and can be accessed via https://montgomery.cloud/hour (audience members will be admitted from 7.25pm and the maximum number of attendees is 100).

Each candidate will introduce themselves, their party and their main policies; questions submitted by the audience will then be posed to each candidate; and candidates will have a chance to sum up before the meeting closes.