Liberal Democrat committee elections delayed until December

A sensible move by the Acting Returning Officer for this year’s round of Liberal Democrat committee elections, the first due by one-member, one-vote (OMOV):

In the past we would normally open nominations for these elections at the Autumn Federal Conference immediately before the elections were held, as the electorate was Federal Party Conference Representatives.

There has been a change of the electorate to one member one vote following the decision at the Autumn 2015 Conference. Furthermore, potential changes to the bodies being elected and the rules for election are going to this Conference in Brighton. As a result, we are not yet in a position to start a set of elections where candidates and voters know what the terms of those elections will be including whether, for example, candidates are agreeing to serve for two or three years.

The elections will therefore be announced to all members as required by the new procedures on a timetable to complete in December once Conference has made the decisions it needs to make and the necessary arrangements to run the elections have been put in place after Conference finishes.