Agenda item

Election of Chief Commoner – proposing revisions to the process by which candidates for Chief Commoner are nominated and seeking approval to amend Standing Orders accordingly.

19 November 2015

(A) Election of Chief Commoner

The annual election of a Chief Commoner is conducted in accordance with Standing Order No. 18, as agreed following the 2011 Governance Review Process and as amended following the Post Implementation review in 2012. Whilst the election process had worked well to date, Members had identified a number of potential opportunities to enhance and further refine the parts of the process relating to the nomination of candidates for election.

The Policy and Resources Committee had considered these proposals, namely the introduction of an official “campaign period” and the introduction of an upper limit to the number of nominations candidates can receive, and recommended that the Court of Common Council approve the introduction of an official start date of 1^st September for prospective candidates to begin canvassing for support; the introduction of an upper limit to the number of nominations a candidate could receive, such that once ten nominations have been obtained the candidate would considered to be validly nominated and no further names in support of their nomination would be accepted; and the requirement for candidates to submit the signatures of each of the ten Members nominating them to the Town Clerk in order to be considered validly nominated.

A number of Members queried the practicalities of the restriction on canvassing, seeking clarity as to what would be considered to constitute such an activity and how any transgressions would be adjudged and dealt with. It was suggested that a protocol would need to be produced to appropriately define this and that this would be a more suitable approach to dealing with this matter. It was felt therefore that the proposed amendment to Standing Order 18(6) should be removed from the recommendation.

Following debate the following amendment was considered:-

Amendment – That the recommendation concerning the introduction of an official start date of 1^st September for prospective candidates to begin canvassing for support, along with the subsequent proposed amendment to Standing Order 18(6), be withdrawn from the Motion being put.

Upon the Question being put, the Lord Mayor declared the amendment to be carried.

The original Motion, as amended, being before the Court.

Resolved – That approval be given to:-

·         The introduction of an upper limit to the number of nominations a candidate can receive, such that once ten nominations have been obtained the candidate is considered to be validly nominated and no further names in support of their nomination will be accepted;

·         The requirement for candidates to submit the signatures of each of the ten Members nominating them to the Town Clerk in order to be considered validly nominated; and

·         The consequent amendments to Standing Order 18(5) as set out in the report.