Chard election farce
It would have been hilarious if it had not been true. How two councils messed up an election between them.
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Chard Election Farce
Town and Parish councils can struggle to create enthusiasm for what they do. Getting people to stand for elections is hard enough, as is persuading people to vote for them. It is commonplace for there to be fewer candidates than empty seats on the council each time the four yearly elections come around.
But if a councillor resigns before their term is up, geeing the public up for a by-election can be an especially tough gig. To start with you have to persuade ten residents to call for an election. If they don’t then the empty council seat is filled via a co-option process run by existing councillors. A process which is not exactly top of the list of open and democratic ways to choose your local representative.
Generally speaking the bigger the council budget, the more candidates you can hope to attract for the four yearly elections. Having either big budgets is one thing, but big issues does the trick too (see what happens when the threat of closure hangs over a school or library). Either gives a council more chance of getting people to take interest in a by-election to fill a “casual vacancy” when a councillor resigns.
Does being a political council help? Possibly. Only in the sense that if one party puts up a candidate, the other often feel obliged to put up an opponent. In non political councils, that is less likely to work.