How to get nominated to stand as a candidate
Want to know how to get nominated for the 2022 Election Cycle?
Then this is the place to find out how! We've got a step by step guide on how to make sure you're on the ballot.
Step 1: Pick the post(s) you’d like to run for and would be best suited for.
Hopefully, you’ll find at least one post that both sounds interesting to you and that you’ve got some good skills or experience for. Your fellow members will particularly be looking for people with relevant skills and knowledge to bring to the team, so it’s worth thinking carefully about this. You can be imaginative too - often skills learnt in one context can be very useful in a very different one!
In this election round, the following posts are up for election. You can see how many nominations a candidate needs for each post in brackets after the position name.
- President (200 nominations from 20 local parties required)
- Vice President (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
- 3 members of the Federal Board (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
- 21 members of Federal Council (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
- 15 members of Federal Policy Committee (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
- 12 members of Federal Conference Committee (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
- 6 members of the Federal International relations Committee (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
- 10 members of ALDE delegation (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
- 3 members of Federal Council, representing the Scottish State Party* (10 nominations from members, or 1 nomination from a Local, Regional, State Party or any AO)
* A nominee to this post must be a member of the Scottish State Party and only members of the Scottish State Party are entitled to vote on who represents them at the Federal Council
Step 2: Work out why someone should nominate you.
Write down a short statement on what skills you have that match the role you’re going for and why you’re interested in it. Bear in mind that members might be getting a lot of these, so being concise will make it more likely your message gets read!
Step 3: Submit your papers
Next, make sure you can get nominated. Complete your consent to nomination form, which can be found here.
If you need help completing the form, just email returning.officer@libdems.org.uk and we’ll be happy to help out.
Step 4: Get your nominations
You'll need to ask other members to nominate you if you want to get onto the ballot. The nomination threshold for each of the posts can be viewed in the election guidance here.
To do this they'll need to go to https://www.libdems.org.uk/request and request their code.
They'll then be emailed a second form where they can nominate you and you'll get an email confirming that they've done that.
There's a guide on how to nominate here: https://www.libdems.org.uk/internal-elections/nomination-guidance
When someone nominates you, we'll send you a courtesy email that includes their name & local party, so you can keep track of who has nominated you - this doesn't mean the nomination has been accepted, only that it's been recieved. The Returning Officer still has to check that nominations are valid, so until the Returning Officer confirms you've been nominated, you should keep collecting nominations.
Step 5: Write your manifesto.
Lastly, take the short statement you prepared earlier and make sure it matches the rules for manifestos. You can check the rules for the limitations on this. There are also a number of pre-set questions to answer for each committee, which you can find here: https://www.libdems.org.uk/internal-elections/candidate-guidance
Once you’re happy with your manifesto, you can submit it here: https://www.libdems.org.uk/submit-manifesto
Step 6: Wait!
You’ve now done all you can, you’ve made your pitch and hopefully, enough people will think you’re fantastic and nominate you.
If you pass the nomination threshold, you’ll get an email from the Returning Officer confirming that and the next steps.
If you don’t meet the threshold, you’ll get an email after nominations have closed.
You can also email the RO to check how many nominations you need, but please allow at least 1 working day for the RO to respond.
Good luck!