Guidance for the GLRO administering the GLA elections

As GLRO you are responsible for all aspects of the nomination process at the Mayor of London election and the election of London-wide Assembly Members1 . 

Your project plan should include details on how you will engage with political parties, candidates and agents and how you will manage the nominations process.

It should be straightforward for those campaigning to participate in elections. As GLRO you are responsible for putting in place an effective communication plans to ensure that parties, candidates and agents at the Mayor of London and London-wide Assembly Member election are provided with clear and timely information – including information about local arrangements – to enable them to engage effectively in the election process. You will need to work with CROs to co-ordinate engagement with candidates and agents both locally and at a London-wide level. You should also liaise with CROs to ensure they provide information and briefings to candidates and agents at the Constituency Assembly Member election. In particular you should ensure that all candidates and agents receive consistent information across Greater London. 

You should liaise with the CROs to determine what information on local processes you require for sharing with parties, candidates and agents at the Mayor of London election and the election of London-wide Assembly Members and to agree how this information can best be disseminated.

You should take steps at an early stage to develop an estimate of how many candidates might stand for election as this can have a significant impact on various elements of the electoral process, including the printing of ballot papers, nominations and the verification and count. In order to develop this estimate, and to keep it under review, you should consider how many candidates stood at the last GLA elections, make early contact with political parties, monitor any expressions of interest and, in due course, monitor requests for nomination packs. 

There may be a significant number of new or less experienced political parties, candidates and agents who are unfamiliar with the practices and processes of standing for election and who will need your support to be able to participate effectively. It is therefore important that you engage parties, candidates and agents as much as possible so that they receive all the information they need in order to stand for election and they can have confidence that the processes are well-managed. 

It is vital that all candidates know what they need to do in order to stand for election, what the spending limits are, how they can obtain the electoral registers and what the restrictions are on the use of the registers, including data protection considerations. One difficulty you are likely to face is that those intending to stand for election do not always make contact with the elections staff before submitting their nomination papers. You will therefore need to consider how you are going to raise awareness and promote the availability of information and briefings to all parties, candidates and agents before they complete and submit their nomination papers.