Should Police Commissioner candidates get election addresses?

The Electoral Commission’s Peter Wardle last week gave a speech to local government Chief Executives, during which he made this point about election addresses:

The constituencies in the PCC [Police and Crime Commissioner] elections are big, with over a million voters in some cases. There’s currently no provision for candidates to have Freepost facilities to deliver their election addresses to voters. Nor is there a provision for any sort of booklet for voters that would include candidates’ election addresses. Alongside the PCC elections, of course, there may well be elections for Mayors in the larger English cities. And candidates for Mayor will, on current plans, be able to pay a fee to have their election address included in a booklet delivered to voters across the city. So we’re worried that we’re currently heading for an odd situation, both for candidates and for voters.

A very good point.

* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.

Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in Election law.
Advert

4 Comments

  • Short answer – Yes – they should be a freepost for police commissioner elections. From a democracy point of view it eliminates on of the problems of getting your message across all of an area. In most counties only the Tories are able to do this.

  • Why didn’t we get this into the legislation?

  • It is really worrying how badly MPs including our own have been on this legislation.In fact I don’t think I have ever witnessed a bigger cock up from the massed leadership of the party whether in Parliament, the FE or the English Party than this. Only the Lib Dem leadership in local government seem to have been sensible on this issue.

  • Agree with the above. Without a freepost some people don’t realise how this changes the dynamics of the election campaign. Even the Tories won’t be able to get literature to every house. Some LDs still worry about the cost despite the fact that it will be a campaign fought in the press, on radio and tv, and on the web and social media sites. November will see the end of any Lib Dem influence on policing and its domination by Labour and the Tories.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Nonconformistradical
    "If we are going down the road of radical solutions, then an enlightended Israeli government supported by a rational US administration would seek to relocate an...
  • Joe Bourke
    The UK needs to look to its own interests and alliances. With Canada having to revisit its International trading relationhips under a Trump administration and t...
  • Joseph Bourke
    Peter Davies makes the point that the Gaza strip may not be viable as a home to 2.3 million people. The Trump statement does raise the issue of evacuation to cl...
  • John Waller
    @Mick Taylor: “X should be avoided. We cannot be seen giving support to a Nazi who is destroying the US governmental system.” Agreed. Reddit has temporar...
  • Sandy Leslie
    One job of the local hero is to stand in by-elections when the local party is unable to find a candedate....