Mr Ulster has highlighted an interesting omission on the old voting slip (he has a postal vote and so got it early). Alongside highlighting that there is very little information on timetabling when to send it back, he notices that the Conservatives and Unionists candidate in this case Mike Nesbitt) does not have a Party logo in the little space where one would normally find one. Everyone else has one, but poor Mike is left .... er..... logoless.
So have the Conservatives and Unionists made a bit of a boo boo? Have they forgotten to get a logo registered with the Electoral Commission?
Well after a little bit of hoking around, I have found a bit of a pub quiz factoid.
The Conservatives and Unionists have not forgotten about the logo. They have, in fact, not been allowed to place a logo where you would find the little party logo due to a legislative oversight.
All elections abide by electoral law.
The European Union sets electoral law just before each EU election (normally in the January/February beforehand). In the European Parliamentary Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2009, to be precise, it allows for joint candidates (where a candidate is standing for more than one party) to use a single registered logo. So Jim could stand as a joint candidate with a nice little logo to go with it all.
However, the UK electoral law, which dates back to 1983 (with some updates since) has never been updated to reflect the idea of joint candidates and the probable need for a wee logo to nicely polish off the candidate's name on the voting slip. As far as I am aware, if it is not in the law, then it can not be done. It has to be specifically referred to within the legislation so as to legitimately allow it. What I have found out as well is that the Electoral Office have been aware of this for a while now (you would also like to think the EU elections would have really highlighted it too) but done nothing about it.
So, the Conservatives and Unionists have been snookered. Or have they? Well, yes they have.
But they are not on their own.
All our Conservatives and Unionists candidates are in the illustrious company in the personage of Mr Ed Balls - of Labour Party and Education Department fame.
He is a joint candidate for Labour and Co-Op (yup fresh veg and government Ministers). He does not get a logo either. Poor Ed.
In fact there are 42 candidates in total who are standing jointly for Labour and Co-Op are in the same boat. Nice photos, but no logos.
