Are "Welsh" Labour going to repeat "Stop Rhodri" fiasco?

The Wasting Mule reports that 

 A major row has broken out over the method of electing Welsh Labour’s next leader, with a senior Cabinet minister strongly criticising a decision to retain the current system and the chair of Welsh Labour accusing colleagues of “wilful misrepresentation”.

Labour activists from across Wales have launched a campaign to challenge the decision of the party’s Welsh Executive Committee (WEC) to reject the one member, one vote (OMOV) arrangement now used to elect leaders of the UK Labour Party.
Welsh Labour, however, still uses an electoral college made up of three sections: ordinary members, MPs and AMs and unions and affiliated groups like the Fabian Society.
Opponents of the electoral college system see it as less democratic than OMOV because it gives disproportionate weight to the votes of elected politicians and trade unions.

The Mule claims that

It was used to stop the late Rhodri Morgan becoming leader of Welsh Labour before the first Assembly election in 1999.

That is not entirely  true  certainly had that effect but it was not part of a deliberate design to prevent Rhodri leading the party.

However it is a myth that the electoral college with Trade Union participation gave power to the left.

Indeed it could be argued that much of the Trade Union block votes have been used to prevent the Left taking power in the Labour Party.

Would Jeremy Corbyn have won under a electoral college , probably not and I doubt that the majority of Trade Unions would have backed him.

 Four AMs joined officers from almost half the Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) in Wales at a meeting in Llandrindod Wells at the weekend, which agreed to strive for the right of Welsh Labour conference to make the final decision.

The AMs who attended the meeting in Llandrindod Wells were Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford, former Counsel General Mick Antoniw, Mike Hedges and Julie Morgan.

Mr Antoniw supports the principle of an electoral college, although not in the form adopted,  but to its credit believes the WEC should not have made a final decision.

The other three support OMOV. Officers from 19 CLPs and two affiliated socialist societies also took part.

Its not for me to to tell the Labour Party, how it should elect its leader.

 But would it not be  to their benefit to elect a leader in Wales who has the support of the  majority members?

In 1999 at the first Assembly elections , riding high on the first Blair  1997 landslide and with the Tories wiped out in Wales . Labour should have won a majority,

But its  rejection of the popular Rhodri Morgan  for  Alun Michael saw Plaid  take votes and seats from them.

The Tories were still far of a recovery

Parties		Additional member system										Total seats
		Constituency					Region
		Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Total	+/−	%
	Labour	384,671	37.6	N/A	27	N/A	361,657	35.4	N/A	1	N/A	28	N/A	46.7
	Plaid Cymru	290,572	28.4	N/A	9	N/A	312,048	30.5	N/A	8	N/A	17	N/A	28.3
	Conservative	162,133	15.8	N/A	1	N/A	168,206	16.5	N/A	8	N/A	9	N/A	15.0
	Liberal Democrats	137,857	13.5	N/A	3	N/A	128,008	12.5	N/A	3	N/A	6	N/A	10.0
	Green	1,002	0.1	N/A	0	N/A	25,858	2.5	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Socialist Labour	-	-	-	-	-	10,720	1.0	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Natural Law	-	-	-	-	-	3,861	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	United Socialist	3,967	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	3,590	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Communist	609	0.1	N/A	0	N/A	1,366	0.1	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Independent	30,554	3.0	N/A	0	N/A	-	-	-	-	-	0	N/A	0
	Independent Labour	4,134	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	-	-	-	-	-	0	N/A	0
	Others	7,736	0.8	N/A	0	N/A	4,673	0.5	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Total	1,023,225			40		1,019,987			20		60

 If it was not seen as the London Hierarchy as imposing Michael as leader in Wales , who knows what would have happened.

At the moment there does not seem to be any potential candidate with Rhodri Morgan's popularity and no Corbynlike left AM waiting in the wings  so maybe the choice of how to elect the leader in Wales will not result in a repeat of the 1997 fiasco.

But it would be fun to see it.