As everyone knows, Lib Dems love elections – and what could be better than our internal elections, where a Lib Dem is guaranteed to finish first? Over on the official party site, you can find out the full list of nominated candidates for the following party positions and committees:
Party President
Chandila Fernando – www.chandila.com
Ros Scott – www.im4ros.com
Lembit Opik – www.lembit4president.co.uk
Timetable: A ballot of all party members will be held between 13th October and 7th November 2008. (Only those members with valid membership subscriptions on 24th September 2008 will be eligible to vote.)
The Federal Executive – 15 Places to be elected
The Federal Policy Committee – 15 Places to be elected
The Federal Conference Committee – 12 Places to be elected
The International Relations Committee – 5 Places to be elected
The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) – 8 Places to be elected
Interim Peers List Top-Up Election – 30 places to be elected
Details of what all these committees do, together with the full list of those standing, is available at the party website.
Timetable for all committee elections: Nomination Papers available from 14th August 2008; Close of Nominations 24th September 2008; Dispatch of ballot papers 8th October 2008; Close of ballot 5th November 2008; Count 8th November 2008.
8 Comments
Just to be clear, only the Presidential election is an all-member ballot. For the committees, it is only voting conference reps who should expect a ballot paper.
Anyone who wants to win the Hackney block vote is welcome to attend our social next Wednesday.
That looks like a lot more people standing for federal committees than usual. Are they really that popular suddenly?
I think the debates about the Party’s internal workings over the last year have prompted more interest.
The switch to a two-year cycle of committee elections has also probably encouraged people who might otherwise have put it off for a year.
There is one ineresting effect of the numbers applying and the gender balance rules.
The provisions of article 2.4 of the Federal Constitution regarding gender balance apply to all of these elections.
Article 2.4 says:
The provisions of this Constitution shall be implemented with regard to the principle that men and women shall have an equal opportunity of participating at every level of the Party.
Whenever this Constitution provides for the election by the same electorate of three or more persons to any committee or other body, not less than one-third or, if one-third is not a whole number, the whole number nearest to but not exceeding one-third (“the Specified Number”) shall be men and women respectively, provided that there is at least twice the Specified Number of male and female candidates respectively validly nominated by the close of nominations. Such elections shall take place from a common list and in accordance with the election rules made by the Federal Executive as from time to time in force.
Taking FE. There are 32 applicants for 15 places. 7 applicants are women. Therefore the number of women getting on will be between 5 and 7, out of 7.
For the men the number getting on will be between 8 and 10, out of 25.
I think I am right in saying all the women candidates for the Interim Peers List will get on.
I’m afraid Duncan is wrong. Note the phrase ‘provided that there is at least twice the Specified Number of male and female candidates respectively validly nominated by the close of nominations’. So for this provision to work, there would have to be 8 women candidates for the FCC, 10 for the FE and FPC and 20 for the peers’ list. The only one that makes it this year is the FPC.
The biggest increase in nominations appears to be for the Federal Policy Committee (FPC).
Given that the FPC elected now will be involved in writing the General Election Manifesto, and there are various controversial policy decisions coming up, that’s probably not surprising.