Congratulations to Sarah Teather MP, who was unanimously re-selected on Sunday night as the Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Brent Central at the next General Election.

Senior Returning Officer Jonathan Davies published some of these figures in a comment thread, but as they’re likely to be of some interest, here they are with some extra detail:

Eastern 42.7% (-1.6% on last time)
East Midlands 49.1 (+1.9)
London 50.9 (+2.3)
North East 63.9 (-2.7)
North West 57.9 (-0.7)
South East 45.4 (-3.8)
South West 50.3 (+6.4)
West Midlands 62.4 (+6.2)
Yorkshire & the Humber 49.4 (+3.2)

Average 52.4  (+0.9)

The party’s just published the results of the selections for our European Parliament election candidates in England. More details over on the main Liberal Democrat website.

Congratulations to Claire on her selection as prospective parliamentary candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough, the seat which has been held by the Lib Dems’ Phil Willis since 1997.

The Yorkshire Evening Post website has more.

Jonathan Davies, the party’s senior returning officer, has just posted the following message on LDV - it deserves flagging up:

Because of the delays in the mail, we have extended the deadline for the return of ballot papers for both the euro and London mayoral selection to 12 noon on Friday 9th November. The freepost envelope which was enclosed in the ballot paper mailing is second class, so you must post it no later than 2nd November. Or you can post your ballot paper first class post and post it until 7th November.

Please pass this information to other members you know who do not have email.

This will not affect the count which will go ahead for the euro selection on Saturday 10th November and for the mayor early the following week.

_________________
Jonathan Davies
Senior Returning Officer

The ballot papers for the selection of the Liberal Democrats’ European Parliamentary candidates are going in the post Wednesday to Friday 10th to 12th October (in England: Wales and Scotland are using a different timetable). Delivery may unfortunately be delayed by the post office strikes - but we hope most ballot papers will arrive during the week ending 19th October.

The deadline for the return of ballot papers is Wednesday 7th November, and in light of continuing difficulties with the post members should post their ballot papers early.

Jonathan Davies
Senior Returning Officer

The Liberal Democrats have just announced their shortlist for London Mayor. The final choice will be made by party members in London in a postal ballot.

The people are:

More details, including hustings, over at the party’s website.

Rochdale Councillor Elwyn Watkins has been selected to fight Oldham East and Saddleworth for the Lib Dems. Elwyn, 43 beat off 4 other candidates and has now promised to hit Labour hard.

Elwyn, a financial analyst for a Sheikh in the Middle East said, “I am obviously delighted that local members have shown their faith in me. I will repay that faith by working hard with Councillors and Members to regain this seat. Phil Woolas MP has a poor record and I am going to expose that. People in Oldham East and Saddleworth are sick of a largely, London based Labour apologist and want a return to a hard working local MP like Chris Davies. My first priority is to work with the Council Group to deliver a Lib Dem Council, just like we’ve delivered in next-door Rochdale. I have a track record of beating Labour and I am proud to have the opportunity to prove it.”

Oldham East and Saddleworth is one of the Lib Dem’s top target seats and only a 5% swing from Labour is needed to win the seat. In this year’s local elections the results in the Constituency were:

• LibDem 13964
• Lab 6698
• Con 3939

Elwyn is currently a member of Rochdale Council, and has been involved in the party for well over 20 years. He was a central figure in the successful General Election campaign in Rochdale in 2005 and has helped in numerous by-elections.

English Party members eligible to vote in the European selections for the 2009 European Parliament elections are being emailed today by Jonathan Davies, the Senior Returning Officer, with three key website links:

• List of candidates and their contact details on the main Liberal Democrat website
• List of hustings events on Flock Together
• Link to online hustings

(The Scottish and Welsh European selections are being carried out at a latter date).

We could be about to see a flurry of imaginative and energetic online campaigning from party candidates - at least those who are serious about wanting to be a candidate in next year’s London Mayor and the 2009 European elections. (Our candidates for the London Assembly have already been selected.)

The selection rules for these contests have been simplified and relaxed and now permit a very wide range of internet and other electronic campaigning with - amongst other things - both SMS campaigning and using a campaign blog now possible.

In another innovation, both selections will see the party running online hustings for the first time, overcoming the geographic barriers which often mean real-world hustings are restricted to a relatively small part of the party’s members.

Read more »

Members who may be interested in applying can obtain an application pack, which includes an Application Form and the Selection Criteria agreed by London Region’s Candidates Committee, from London Mayor Returning Officer, c/o London Regional Office, 4 Cowley Street, London, SW1P 3NB or by phone 07956 374220 or, preferably, by email on

Read more »

Two internal reports by the returning officer into the Lib Dems’ selection of their prospective Parliamentary candidate for Leyton and Wanstead have been leaked to the local press, which reports:

RULES to prevent postal vote fraud were broken during the election for the Liberal Democrats’ prospective Parliamentary candidate for Leyton and Wanstead, the returning officer (RO) has found.

Former Mayor of Waltham Forest, Cllr Farooq Qureshi, was selected ahead of nearest rival Nasser Butt to stand against sitting Labour MP Harry Cohen at the next general election.

The full story is here.

On Tuesday Cllr Andrew Dakers was selected as the PPC for Brentford & Isleworth. On Thursday Cllr Munira Hassam was selected as the PPC for Feltham & Heston.

Thanks to Michael Wilson for letting us know.

Former Liberal Democrat MP for Ludlow, Matthew Green is stepping down as Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Ludlow to concentrate on his planning consultancy business Green Planning Solutions LLP.

Matthew Green said “When I started my planning consultancy in 2005, I could not have anticipated the growth of the business. Although I am in the process of recruiting additional staff much of the business is dependent on my time. I am regularly working 16 hour days, I also need to spend time with my family and eventually something has to give”.

Matthew Green added “It’s a frustrating decision to come to as I had hoped to return to the House of Commons and become part of Ming Campbell’s team, who is a leader I support and admire. However I have to ensure that I do not artificially hold back a burgeoning business”.

hat-tip

Hearty congratulations to Alex Feakes, selected to fight the new seat of Lewisham West and Penge.

Unusually, Dorset-based Lib Dem blogger Justine McGuiness has raised questions about the selection process on her blog.

Congratulations to Caroline Pidgeon, selected to fight Vauxhall at the next election.

Thanks to Rob Blackie for the info.

Congratulations to Rebecca Hunt, selected to be PPC for Maidstone and The Weald, and to Sarah Carr who has been selected to take the baton from Paul Keetch in Hereford.

Thanks to Mark Valladares and Colin Ross for the head’s up.

THE Liberal Democrat candidate to fight MP Phil Woolas for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat has unexpectedly quit — to work in Russia.

Alison Smith — the first woman parliamentary hopeful chosen to contest the seat — stepped down yesterday and held a farewell social last night.

The party says the law graduate from Aberdeen is quitting politics to work in Russia. Privately she told friends she was going to study Russian at Oxford hoping to get work in Russia.

More from the Oldham Chronicle.

Remember that Simon Hughes told conference in the closing session before Ming’s speech that he was planning to help in a Nottinghamshire County Council by-election on his way home?

Despite the filthy weather that day, Simon’s help clearly paid off. Today was polling day, and an intrepid count-goer has texted the result to Lib Dem Voice’s Night Editor.

Members of the Labour Party should look away now.

Congrats to all concerned, including newly elected Cllr Jazon Zadrozny. I’m sure someone will be along in the morning who can calculate swing properly, but my calculation from the results last time, where Labour had 45% of the vote and a majority of 981, it’s a swing to the Lib Dems of over 50%.

Co-incidentally, the Ashfield constituency selection advertisement should be turning up in Lib Dem News any time now.