Wednesday 29 June 2016

We should ;d have more information clearly available on Consituency spending.

The result of the The EU  referendum has unfortunate killed off reporting on the claims  that d that the Conservatives have miscalculated spending during their 2015 general election campaign.
 The Electoral Commission issues clear guidelines on spending. These state that:
There are two types of spending by or on behalf of parties at elections. These are:
Party campaign spending on campaigning to promote the party and its policies generally. For example, national newspaper adverts for the party, or leaflets explaining party policy. It also includes spending on promoting candidates at elections where the party nominates a list of candidates for a region, instead of individual candidates for local areas.
Candidate spending on campaigning to promote a particular candidate or candidates in their local area. For example, leaflets or websites that focus on one or more candidates and their views.
Different rules apply to the two types of spending.
It would still be interesting to see the same information that appears on the Wikipedia coverage of the constituency results of our seats  as they do with Canadian elections



Where  the expenses of the Parties contesting are eventually included in the result

Take the result for Sydney—Victoria i a federal electoral district in Nova ScotiaCanada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1997.


[hide]Canadian federal election, 2011
PartyCandidateVotes%∆%Expenditures
LiberalMark Eyking14,78839.91-9.49$67,454.53
ConservativeCecil Clarke14,02337.85+17.23$77,334.98
New DemocraticKathy MacLeod7,04919.02-5.42$17,238.77
GreenChris Milburn1,1913.21-2.33$0.00
Total valid votes/Expense limit37,051100.0   $80,666.28
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots2790.75+0.03
Turnout37,33061.48+4.07
Eligible voters60,719
Liberal holdSwing-13.36
Sources:[6][7]
Its a bit messy as I couldn't fit it all in but scroll across for the expenses for this seat.

It probably takes awhile before the details of the expenditure for the  last Election are displayed whee there was a huge swing to the Liberals

Canadian politics are quite volatile

[hide]Canadian federal election, 2015
PartyCandidateVotes%∆%Expenditures
LiberalMark Eyking29,99573.20+33.29
New DemocraticMonika Dutt5,35113.06–5.97
ConservativeJohn Douglas Chiasson4,36010.64–27.21
GreenAdrianna MacKinnon1,0262.50–0.71
LibertarianWayne James Hiscock2420.59
Total valid votes/Expense limit40,974100.00 $194,502.63
Total rejected ballots2360.57
Turnout41,21068.96
Eligible voters59,761
Liberal holdSwing+19.63
Source: Elections Canada[4][5]
There seems to be over a doubling of the expenses limit for this riding do the figuers for 2015 

Before the campaign, there were no limits to what a political party, candidate, or third party (corporations, unions, special interest groups, etc.) can spend: spending rules are only in force after the writs have been dropped and the campaign has begun. Because the election period is set longer than the standard 37-day election period, spending limits are increased in proportion to the length of the period.[73]
Party spending limits and actual spending, 2015 vs 2011
TypeSpending limits20152011[74]
2015[75]2011ConservativeNDPLiberalConservativeNDPLiberal
Amount%Amount%Amount%Amount%Amount%Amount%
Political party$54,475,840[76]$21,025,793$19,519,99593%$20,372,23197%$19,507,74693%
Party candidates$73,611,590[77]$28,244,499$19,655,13670%$7,117,96225%$14,517,36341%
Total$128,087,430$49,270,292$39,175,13180%$27,490,19356%$34,025,10969%
Candidates spending > 75% of limit1734491
Candidates spending > 50% of limit22870169

Reimbursements for political parties and candidates[edit]


So it will be interesting  o see how much difference this made in each constituency. The Information is available but not so accessible.

It would be certainly helpful if Wikipedia provided us with the same information on a consistency basis here.


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