The full results for the NEC elections can broadly be shown to be good news for the left.  But the headline figures disguise one or two uncomfortable truths, the most pressing being that more than 140,000 party member chose not to participate.

Controversy has been raging in the pages of Tribune over claims that Labour party staff have been campaigning for the Blair-friendly slate of hacks for the Labour Party NEC elections.

I want to help to make the 2006/8 NEC an effective advocate of concerns of Labour Party members and other working people. I will consider myself accountable to Labour Party members and will regularly report to them.

Current NEC member. I am committed to helping to build an effective NEC that will return power to the party and members. CLPs and unions working together could ensure greater party democracy and accountability.

I'm asking you to vote for me because I stand up for the views of ordinary members on the NEC. Labour has to constantly develop and reach out to new voters but we must never move too far away from our traditional strengths and supporters.

I have been a Labour, Co-operative and trade union activist for 30 years. I have held office at all levels of the party, and am currently secretary of my ward and CLP.

Halesowen & Rowley Regis CLP

• leader of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
  
• treasurer - National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs
  
• life-time member of ISTC - now `Community'
  
• born in Neath, Glamorgan

I am a dynamic, hardworking maths teacher in an inner city secondary school. I am one of the few candidates not running on a slate or to receive funding from a union. I have received support and nominations from rank and file constituencies up and down the country.

I have been actively involved in both local and national politics for 20 years. My interest was sparked when I was elected as a community councillor for my local area in Linwood.

About me
I'm an active grassroots member of the party and a trade union lawyer working most closely with T&G and UCATT members.  Recently I've represented sacked Gate Gourmet workers, reaffirming my belief that greater safeguards are needed for the most disadvantaged in society.

Lorna joined the party in 1986 aged 18. She has been a lifelong trade unionist and party activist, from being an officer on her local trades council as a teenager, as President of the NUS and as a Member of Parliament and PPS to the late Robin Cook.

Addressing the important issues
I understand members' concerns about the need to focus on improving and supporting the delivery of public services. I am an active member of the National Policy Forum, Leader of the Labour Group on Kirklees Council. My commitment to social justice and democracy around the world has seen me recently visit Palestine to help oversee the first ever local elections there.

With your support I will be a champion of ordinary party members on the NEC. I will work to rebuild a mass party which can only be done if members get something positive out of belonging.

Having served on the NEC for seven years, I am standing this time for the constituency section. I am not on any `slate', but believe I have the right independent approach to help take Labour through the next challenging years.

Thanks to all of you for nominating me for these elections. This is a crucial period for our party, we need to ensure a victory for an historic fourth-term.

I have been fortunate enough to serve on the committee since May 2005, half way through a two year term of office taking over when Shahid Malik was elected to Parliament.

I am standing again because the NEC needs ordinary representatives with jobs outside politics, speaking for the volunteers on the ground, and I am grateful to the 157 constituencies who nominated me.

Azhar has been a community activist since 1984 when he became NUS President at his local college, and a Labour party activist since the early 1990s. Azhar's politics have been shaped by living in a mill town in Lancashire hit hard by Thatcherite policies which led to urban and social decay.

Below is the explanatory note with the Labour NEC voting guide. I shall be posting the statements and nominations of the candidates for your comment.

Walter Wolfgang, the 82-year-old Labour party activist ejected from last year's Brighton conference for daring to shout "Nonsense!" during Jack Straw's speech, stands a fighting chance of winning a seat on the NEC.