Watch out for a flurry of internal online campaigning

We could be about to see a flurry of imaginative and energetic online campaigning from Liberal Democrat would-be candidates – at least those who are serious about wanting to be a candidate in next year’s London Mayor and the 2009 European elections. (Our candidates for the London Assembly have already been selected.)

The selection rules for these contests have been simplified and relaxed. They now permit a very wide range of internet and other electronic campaigning with – amongst other things – both SMS campaigning and using a campaign blog now possible.

In another innovation, both selections will see the party running online hustings for the first time, overcoming the geographic barriers which often mean real-world hustings are restricted to a relatively small part of the party’s members.

The e-hustings will be run using an online discussion forum format and hosted on the party’s members only website. The e-hustings will start around 28th August for the European Selection and around 10th September for the Mayor.

To take part in the hustings you will need to be a party members with a Liberal Democrats Account – that’s the combination of username and password which work across a range of different party sites.