Candidates and parties who deliver the completed nomination papers and the deposit by the required deadline will be deemed nominated unless and until you decide that the nomination form is invalid (or, in the case of a candidate at the Mayor of London election or an individual London-wide Assembly Member candidate, they withdraw or die).
You must determine the validity of a nomination form as soon as is practicable after formal delivery.1
The sooner you carry out the formal determination, the greater the chance of those candidates who have made a mistake and whose nomination has been rejected being able to submit new papers before the close of nominations.
undertake any investigation or research into any candidate. Your duty does not go beyond seeing that a nomination form and home address form is correct on face value.2
You should not:
investigate whether a name given on a nomination form is genuine
You should:
disregard any personal knowledge you may already have of the candidate
determine nominations on the basis of the form itself
It is suggested that the same principles should apply to party nominations and the accompanying party list.
2. For example Greenway Stanley v Paterson [1977] 2 All ER 663; R v An Election Court ex parte Sheppard [1975] 1 WLR 1319.↩ Back to content at footnote 2