Registration of Political Parties Act 1998

Last updated

Registration of Political Parties Act 1998
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act to make provision about the registration of political parties.
Citation 1998 c. 48
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent 19 November 1998
Status: Amended
Revised text of statute as amended

The Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 (c. 48), is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which made legal provision to set up a register of political parties in the United Kingdom. Previously there had been no such register, and political parties were not specially recognised.

The legislation was introduced for a variety of reasons. It was planned to introduce some elements of list-based proportional representation in elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly and also to introduce full list-based proportional representation in European Parliament elections in England, Scotland and Wales and for that, political parties needed to have a stronger legal recognition. [1] Additionally, various pieces of legislation needed to refer to parties and so were using ad hoc definitions, which might have been incompatible.[ citation needed ]

Another motivation was the use of the names Literal Democrats, Conversative Party, and Labor Party by people in elections in the 1990s; these names were criticised as potentially confusing with the names of the three major parties in the UK (the Liberal Democrats, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, respectively). In the 1994 European Elections, Richard Huggett stood as a Literal Democrat candidate for the Devon and East Plymouth seat, taking more votes than the Conservative Party margin over the Liberal Democrats, leading to a legal challenge by the Liberal Democrat candidate. [2]

Candidates for election could no longer be described as an "Independent Conservative" or "Independent Liberal" on a ballot paper, as the 1998 Act prohibits any description which could cause confusion with a registered political party. In practice, the description used is either the name of a registered party or the word "Independent". [3]

The legislation therefore introduced a register of political parties and included provisions to prohibit "confusion" with already-existing parties, [4] names that were more than six words, [5] or were "obscene or offensive". [6]

As the act also permitted logos on ballot papers, the act also introduced a similar register for emblems, [6] which had the result that the Communist Party of Britain is the only party in the United Kingdom permitted to use the hammer and sickle as its ballot-paper logo, although they usually use the hammer and dove variant. Parties may register more than one emblem, or none at all; most have two or three.[ citation needed ]

The act was amended by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (2000 c. 41) to change the registration authority to the Electoral Commission from "the registrar or other officer who performs the duty of registration of companies in England and Wales under the Companies Act 1985" [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of the United Kingdom</span> Political system of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The politics of the United Kingdom functions within a constitutional monarchy where executive power is delegated by legislation and social conventions to a unitary parliamentary democracy. From this a hereditary monarch, currently King Charles III, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Rishi Sunak since 2022, serves as the elected head of government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of Scotland</span>

The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a country. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the Scotland Act 1998. Most executive power is exercised by the Scottish Government, led by the First Minister of Scotland, the head of government in a multi-party system. The judiciary of Scotland, dealing with Scots law, is independent of the legislature and the Scottish Government. Scots law is primarily determined by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government shares some executive powers with the Scotland Office, a British government department led by the Secretary of State for Scotland.

The electoral system of Australia comprises the laws and processes used for the election of members of the Australian Parliament and is governed primarily by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. The system presently has a number of distinctive features including compulsory enrolment; compulsory voting; majority-preferential instant-runoff voting in single-member seats to elect the lower house, the House of Representatives; and the use of the single transferable vote proportional representation system to elect the upper house, the Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Australian Legislative Council</span> Upper house of the parliament in South Australia, Australia

The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1979 Scottish devolution referendum</span> Post-legislative referendum

A post-legislative referendum was held in Scotland in 1979 to decide whether there was a sufficient support for a Scottish Assembly proposed in the Scotland Act 1978 among the Scottish electorate. This was an act to create a devolved deliberative assembly for Scotland. A majority (51.6%) of voters supported the proposal, but an amendment to the Act stipulated that it would be repealed if less than 40% of the total electorate voted in favour. As there was a turnout of 64% the "Yes" vote represented only 32.9% of the registered electorate, and the act was subsequently repealed.

The 1997 Winchester by-election was a by-election to the UK House of Commons in the constituency of Winchester, Hampshire. Winchester was initially declared to have been won by Mark Oaten with a majority of two votes at the general election on 1 May 1997, but following a legal challenge, a new election was allowed by the High Court. The by-election, held on 20 November, was won by Oaten with a majority of 21,556.

Richard John Huggett is a British former teacher who has been a candidate in a number of elections, using descriptions which were similar to those of established political parties, leading to this practice being outlawed under the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Representation of the People Act 1969</span> United Kingdom law reforming the electoral system

The Representation of the People Act 1969 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that lowered the voting age to 18 years. This statute is sometimes called the Sixth Reform Act.

An independent, non-partisan politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electoral Administration Act 2006</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Electoral Administration Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed on 11 July 2006.

Independent Liberal is a description allowed in politics to denote party affiliation. It is used to designate a politician as a liberal, yet independent of the official Liberal Party of a country. Those parties were the Liberal Party of Canada, or the Liberal Party of the United Kingdom, or the New Zealand Liberal Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 Scottish Parliament election</span> Parliamentary election held in Scotland

The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devon and East Plymouth (European Parliament constituency)</span> Constituency of the European Parliament

Devon and East Plymouth was a European Parliament constituency covering all of Devon in England, with the exception of the city of Plymouth. It was created in 1994 to replace the majority of Devon and a small part of Cornwall and Plymouth.

Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannabis political parties</span> Political parties advocating cannabis legalization

Cannabis political parties are generally single-issue parties that exist to oppose the laws against cannabis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections in the United Kingdom</span> Overview of the procedure of elections in the United Kingdom

There are five types of elections in the United Kingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, local elections, mayoral elections, and police and crime commissioner elections. Within each of those categories, there may also be by-elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday, and under the provisions of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 the timing of general elections can be held at the discretion of the prime minister during any five-year period. All other types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the devolved assemblies and parliaments can occur in certain situations. The five electoral systems used are: the single member plurality system (first-past-the-post), the multi-member plurality, the single transferable vote, the additional member system, and the supplementary vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum</span> 2011 referendum in the UK on reforming the voting system

The United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, also known as the UK-wide referendum on the Parliamentary voting system was held on Thursday 5 May 2011 in the United Kingdom (UK) to choose the method of electing MPs at subsequent general elections. It occurred as a provision of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement drawn up in 2010 and also indirectly in the aftermath of the 2009 expenses scandal. It operated under the provisions of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 and was the first national referendum to be held under provisions laid out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended electoral law in the United Kingdom. It introduced Individual Electoral Registration (IER).

References

  1. ↑ Bennett, Scott (25 June 2002). "Australia's Political Parties: More Regulation?". Parliament of Australia. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  2. ↑ Peev, Gerri (21 February 2005). "Challenger could spell ballot paper trouble for Tories' Davis". The Scotsman . Archived from the original on 10 January 2006. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
    - "BBC Rewind: A Literal Democrat". BBC News . 13 June 1994. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "How to register your political party". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  4. ↑ Coleman, Piers (12 April 2001). "A liberal approach -- the first of a series of articles on political parties, talking to the Lib Dems' lawyers about nerve-jangling moments waiting for recounts and tackling courtroom dramas". The Law Society Gazette. Archived from the original on 20 November 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
    - "UKIP angry over 'confusing' Euro election name". BBC News. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  5. ↑ "Standing for election in the United Kingdom" (PDF). Electoral Commission. January 2015. p. 53. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  6. 1 2 Davis, Howard (2001). Political Freedom: Association, Political Purposes and the Law. A&C Black. pp. 58–59. ISBN   978-0-8264-5030-2 – via Google Books.
  7. ↑ Registration of Political Parties Act 1998, 3 December 1998, retrieved 21 November 2017– via The National Archives
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.