The United Kingdom Independence Party, an organisation I have little sympathy with in terms of their attitude to both Wales and Europe, seem to be experiencing some confusion about their General Election candidate for Ceredigion. A couple of months ago their contestant was listed on their website as Mike Wieteska, a Salford-born Christian minister. Then, for a while, he was simultaneously listed as the candidate for Aberconwy before the Ceredigion reference was deleted altogether. An invitation to the party to attend the recent hustings in Aberystwyth went unanswered.Now there’s a similar confusion with Elwyn Williams, a Conservative candidate in the 1997 General Election who subsequently left to join UKIP. Today on their UK website he is simultaneously listed as the candidate for both Ceredigion and Arfon whilst on the UKIP Wales site he is down as just standing in Arfon with no Ceredigion contender.
The person watching most closely may well be Luke Evetts, the Conservative candidate here whose vote would theoretically be the most affected, although I’ve known votes to transfer to UKIP from both disaffected Labour and Lib Dem supporters. However, as UKIP central office continue to shuffle their candidates around in an attempt to build on the somewhat incongruous election of a Euro-MP in Wales last year, we’ll probably have to wait until nomination day to know for certain their plans in Ceredigion.