£500 deposit required

[El Cid]

The £500 deposit required to stand in a general election should be scrapped, the Electoral Commission has said. The watchdog said the sum, which is returned if a candidate gets at least 5% of votes cast, was "unreasonable" as it depended on their financial means.

 

The proposal is one of a series of reforms put forward by the commission to reform the system of deciding who can contest elections in the UK.

I have just been watch the election at South Thanet, with the pub landlord and Nigel Faraj standing.

He seems to have been standing as a joke, for publicity; so the £500 did not stop him.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30790012