Candidates 2011

The New Year is only a few weeks away. The time has now come to call for our 2011 election candidates to present themselves, for approval by party members, ready for the campaigns to come.

Major elections

We have two major elections coming up:

• First is the Scottish Parliament election in which we hope to run a full slate so that every Scottish voter has the opportunity to vote Pirate. This is also a starting point, not only for gaining an electoral presence in the Scottish Parliament, but also for future European Parliament elections which we hope and intend to contest every region of the United Kingdom.
• Second are the local council elections in England, which do not directly cost us to run candidates, and should form the basis for gathering support, and preparing good candidates for future Westminster elections, by-elections, European elections, and other regional elections such as mayors which are proposed in many places.
• Third are any Westminster by-elections which we may wish to contest, which will take resources to fight however may be worthwhile where it could be politically useful for us to contest the seat. For example, we know that there will be a 2011 by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth, where it's been suggested that we should fight the seat.

For the next year, London members don't have the same immediate electoral opportunities; in the longer view, the 2012 focus is likely to be on the London Assembly and Mayoral elections, and there is no time too early to be preparing and planning for that. For Wales, at present we have not yet had enough member feedback and regional activity to pursue Welsh Assembly elections to the extent we may hope to do in future.

Scottish Parliament

For the Scottish parliament elections, our Scottish members have been amongst the most busy and active UK Pirates in recent months, with regular meetings and discussions about how the Scottish campaign should work, and how candidates can be chosen. Out of feedback received from that, combined with past precedent and what we are presently able to do in practice, I am happy to announce the following process for the selection of Scottish parliament candidates.

We will be contesting for the "regional list" seats, rather contesting individual constituencies. This is what will allow us to contest all of Scotland, if we wish - we anticipate having sufficient funds to do this, if so decided, and it is also is a kind of proportional system, though the candidates actually elected are chosen by the party list rather than by the individual voter, as described here. As part of our commitment to open and transparent methods, being the Pirate Party UK, it is therefore equally important that our internal candidate selection should result from an open and transparent process within the Party, visible to all members, and that all Scottish members should have the ultimate say on who is approved or not.

The method that has been proposed for approving our Scottish list candidates is as follows:

• We are now asking potential candidates to identify themself, indicating which of the 8 Scottish regions they wish to stand for, and why. These should be posted in our Scotland regional forum, and may be entered at any time until the end of 2010.
• After nominations have closed, we will hold an internal member vote, one for each of the Scottish regions where Pirates have put themselves forward, to select the lead candidate for that region. Only Scottish party members will be able to vote in these polls, and due both to our current membership and also practical reality of what is possible for us to implement at this moment, all Scottish members will be able to take part in all the polls, not just for their particular sub-region within Scotland.
• The lead candidate will be first on the list, and further candidates for that regional list will be appointed by the lead candidate. This solves a number of issues; we may not have a full list in all cases, and it puts the focus on the lead candidate in each region, who would be in charge of recruiting their "team" of up to 7 further candidates, plus any other volunteers they wish and can talk into helping out.

The period for candidates to put themselves forward will run from now until the end of the year, Friday 31st December 2010.

As of January, we will organise a candidate ratification vote for each of the 8 regions, which will be a single winner Alternative Vote internal election to choose the lead candidate for the region, from those who have indicated they are willing to stand, and will also allow the choice for Re-open Nominations / No preference to decline any candidate for that region at this time. Where there are no candidates or Re-open Nominations wins, we might attempt to hold a further nomination period later in 2011 if we wish to complete a full roster for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.

As I presently understand the Scottish Parliament electoral rules, candidates are not required to be presently resident in Scotland; I suppose that would be a substantial consideration for Scottish members selecting our candidates, however if a good candidate put theirself forward for a region and Scottish members chose to endorse that, then it could be possible even if the candidate was not Scottish. Another consideration is whether a potential candidate could put theirself forward for more than one Scottish region, which raises the possibility they could be selected as lead candidate in more than one of the eight regions.

My personal view is that the lead candidate in each region would have enough on their plate, and also would have substantial influence once approved in choosing further list candidates and activists to support their campaign in the region; so I would have no problem with any Pirate offering themself to stand for more than one region, however should they win approval in two or more regions I would request the candidate to choose which region they wished to stand in, and withdraw themselves from selection for other regions. If willing, then the candidate selection vote could be re-counted with that withdrawal, resulting either in selection of an alternate lead candidate, or Re-open nominations / No selection at that time. The exact processes for such circumstances are something that need not be decided till January, and I would invite comment or suggestions in this area.

England local elections

For council elections in England, we know and I have circulated to regional administrators the list of elections which will be contested in May. We know where those will be held, our members know where they are, and we need to combine the information to contest as many local elections in England as possible in May 2011. As per current PPUK policy, we will approve any Pirate member who is able and willing to stand, unless there was some very good reason why not, and we would hope that the best of these will become future candidates for either London, Westminster, or European election.

For Westminster parliamentary by-elections, we will consider any suggestion to fight by-elections on their merits, and I would be happy to include any potential candidates in the process described above. The result of that provides "in principle" endorsement by the party, subject to release of funds by the central party or local fund-raising or support by activists to enable the candidate to stand. In other words, it is enough for me as Nominating officer to sign the form authorising you as a candidate, but you may need to raise funds or convince the NEC and Campaigns team in particular that we should carry that through into practice.

At the present moment, Oldham and Saddleworth has been suggested as one seat we may wish to consider fighting, not least because our current leader Loz Kaye has been asked by some of our members whether he would stand there, and has been considering putting himself forward for selection by the Party for that contest. Again, anyone wishing to put themselves forward as a potential candidate should talk to their regional administrator (if you have one) and/or myself, and then post in the forums, indicating that they wish to stand, and why we should support that contest. Nominations received prior to 31st December 2010 for seats we are considering will then be put to party member ratification in the New Year, along with the Scottish candidate ratifications described above.

Endnote

So; this has been quite a long post, I hope not too much of a TL;DR one though I'm aware sometimes I tend that way...

I look forward to supporting the candidates the Party chooses for elections at every level in 2011, and confirming their valid selection through the election process with Returning Officers and the Electoral Commission. With your help, we will have candidates, with every support Pirate Party UK organisation is able to deliver, in 2011.

Oh - and BTW I hope you all have a great Christmas and forget about Wikileaks and all politics for at least a day or two over the holiday period :)
(I know I will!)

John Barron