Who has too much influence in Liberal Democrat candidate selections?

This is what female members of the Liberal Democrat list of approved candidates for the Westminster Parliament thought in 2007:

National leaders:
Have too little / far too little influence over the selection process: 26%
Have about the right influence: 58%
Too great / far too great: 5%
No view/ answer: 11%

Regional officers:
Too little / far too little: 21%
About right: 56%
Too great / far too great: 12%
No view/ answer: 12%

Local constituency officers:
Too little / far too little: 8%
About right: 62%
Too great / far too great: 18%
No view/ answer: 12%

Local party members:
Too little / far too little: 6%
About right: 71%
Too great / far too great: 13%
No view/ answer: 10%

Party agents:
Too little / far too little: 17%
About right: 59%
Too great / far too great: 5%
No view/ answer: 19%

I am not aware of similar figures for male candidates, but from personal experience (both as a Returning Officer and helping people with selection campaigns) I would expect a fairly similar picture.

The 22% figure for national leaders having too little influence on selections is higher that I’d have expected. But looking at the comments made by people and the answers to other questions on the approval process it looks to really be the consequence of two other views.

First, people who have frustrating experiences of how local parties have run selections – and hence a reaction wishing that other parts of the party got involved to sort things out. Similarly, some people have a very negative view of the selection process. One in five, for example, said their experience of the approval process pre-2007 (i.e. before the most recent reforms) was that it was inefficient and 15% thought it had been not very or not at all democratic.

Second, the question of whether the party’s national leaders have in the past taken enough interest and shown enough lead in trying to improve the gender balance of the Parliamentary Party in Westminster.

Thank you to Serena Hennessy for providing me with access to her survey data gathered for her Masters dissertation at UCL, 2007.