The Co-operative Party, which runs joint candidates with the Labour Party, reports:
Following last year’s ruling by the Electoral Commission that precluded joint candidates from using an emblem – which was made without warning and after the nominations deadline – we have spent a long year of negotiation with the EC and the Cabinet Office to secure the necessary change to legislation.
A statutory instruments laid before Parliament last week updates election rules to tackle this. The Local Elections (Principal Areas) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Rules 2011 adds the following to the rules:
If a candidate who is the subject of an authorisation by two or more parties under rule 5(3) so requests, the ballot paper must contain, against the candidate’s particulars, the registered emblem (or, as the case may be, one of the registered emblems) of one of those parties.
The rules for parish and community council elections in England and Wales have also been updated.
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5 Comments
So that sorts out England & Wales, what about the rest?
Cannot speak for elsewhere, but this problem does not affect Scottish Parliament candidates as the “problem” legislation does not apply to SP elections.
It did cause problems for joint candidates in Scotland at the 2010 general election. I would guess that will be fixed before the next UK general election.
Good to see that the Electoral Commission had nothing better to do with its time in the run up to the last General Election. I wonder which pedant thought it was worth complaining to them about this in the first place??
Does this seemingly small law change provide some cement for the coalition? Will the Lib Dems and the Tories start campaigning for eachother… under the same logo? http://bit.ly/eyXYmW
Other statutory instruments have been laid which cover the Scottish Parliament, Welsh & Northern Irish Assemblies and directly elected Mayors in England. Correcting this mistake for general elections requires primary legislation which should be in hand.