Wednesday, December 12, 2007

How impartial is the Electoral Commission?

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 is a funny thing isn't it? It set up the Electoral Commission to monitor all the political parties and yet under its rules all staff accept the chief executive can be a member of a political party. What's more all the staff are allowed to donate to political parties below the level required for the donation to be recorded, and they're also allowed to contribute to the political fund of a trade union.

Irrespective of which side of the political fence one might sit on, is it not a bit silly to allow staff of a body designated to monitor and regulate the political parties also be funder and/or members of the very same political parties they will have to watch? I know it's a cliche, but who watches the watchers?

3 comments:

Chris Paul said...

They don't allow activists who have been involved in campaigning as candidates, agents, canvassers for several years after their time, just sleepers.

In one sense they might be more effective if they did have recent political street fighters in their numbers. They just don't seem to know what is going on or how to attempt to control that.

Anonymous said...

Mugabee would be proud of rules like that.

Surreptitious Evil said...

Blair of the Yard. Who is clearly politically independent. For this definition of 'independent'.