Southend Bye Election

[CrapAtCryptics]

I am quite disgusted to see that 8 other candidates are standing. David Amess was killed by a terrorist and by not allowing his seat to remain Conservative they are furthering that scum bags purpose. Common decency alone should prevail

[dannyk13]

//. Common decency alone should prevail//
No such thing when it comes to politics.

[bhg481]

Well the Labour Party have done the honourable thing by not fielding a candidate but there are enough other candidates for one to succeed thanks to the current mess the Tories are getting themselves into. I would be voting "Not Tory" if I had the chance.

[andy-hughes]

The process needs to be followed.

The electorate voted for an individual who is tragically no longer in post.

That does not compel them to elect a candidate purely on the basis of his or her party, that's not how the electoral system works.

[naomi24]

I’ve just read the psychedelic candidate’s blurb. The seat will remain Tory… as it should.

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1783831.html

[Ellipsis]

I agree with the OP. In fact, I don't think in such circumstances (where the sitting MP has been murdered) there should be a by-election at all, just a new MP installed by the local party with their own vote.

[bhg481]

I disagree with ellipsis - you vote for a candidate, not a party.

[naomi24]

I agree with ellipsis. I vote for the party. It seems odd that the death of an elected politician warrants a by-election but an MP reneging on his pledge to his constituents by crossing the floor doesn’t.

[ichkeria]

Well the death of an MP leaves a vacancy!

So that’s a pretty good reason.

On balance I think that what is happening is fair enough. No opposition candidate with a remote change of winning is standing and it allows responsible and decent people to make a gesture futile as it might be against the sort of thing that happened - yet again sadly; (all parties have had at least one MP attacker while “on duty” in recent years.
There are circumstances where not having an election would be genuinely problematic for example were the previous MP was say an independent.

[ichkeria]

Hopefully many voters who’d normally vote for other main parties would vote for the Conservative today,
So that will be a case of voting for the candidate not the party at least

[Ellipsis]

The reason I said what I did is that no decent party should field a candidate in opposition, therefore the electorate should not be troubled with a vote, it should be a foregone conclusion. There should be no "electoral reward" for murdering an MP, it's an unnatural and illegal end to their tenure.

[naomi24]

Ich, the vacancy is for a Conservative. The people voted for a Conservative and the next election isn’t due for a couple of years.

[ichkeria]

The vacancy is for an MP after one who happened to be a Conservative was murdered and as you can tell I’ve no problem with another Conservative taking their place, whether unopposed, practically unopposed as here or even “selected”.
But I think the last option is the least good, partly for the reason I mentioned above: you’d probably have to make it a rule and it would only work in certain cases. Even if most of the time that might apply as here. And I’m not sure we really want a rule about what to do in the still thankfully rare case where an MP is murdered. Best to let events take their course as here

[ichkeria]

“ There should be no "electoral reward" for murdering an MP, it's an unnatural and illegal end to their tenure”

I don’t think there will be any reward for anyone here.
Let charities have the lost deposits if need be.
What happens if there is no party?

[Ellipsis]

Then you'd need a by-election. Just as if David Amess had been an Independent, all the main parties would be standing in Southend.

[gulliver1]

Don't think there should be a bye election in this case .
The Cons should be allowed to just name a new Mp of their choice. end of.

[ToraToraTora]

^^^^ they have in effect.

[gulliver1]

If this had been a normal Bye Election... the Tory candidate
...would have lost his/her deposit .

[Mozz71]

Good to see you being rational and respectful in this instance Gulliver. And I agree fully, there should not be a bye election in these instances.

[royfromaus]

There's no such thing as a Bye Election.