United Kingdom
Currently, the deposit in elections to the House of Commons is £500, which must be handed in, in cash, banker's draft, or other forms of legal tender, when the candidate submits his or her nomination papers. It is refunded provided that the candidate gains one-twentieth (5%) or more of the total valid votes cast in the constituency.
Between 1918 and 1985, the cost of a Parliamentary deposit was £150 but the threshold for retaining it (i.e., having the money returned to the candidate) was winning one-eighth (12.5%) of total valid votes cast.
Deposits also must be paid by candidates for election to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, for Mayor of London or a member of the London Assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly or British constituencies of the European Parliament. A deposit of £500 is also required for mayoral elections in those English or Welsh local authorities that govern by the election of an executive mayor.
Deposits are also required in the electoral jurisdictions of countries other than the United Kingdom, particularly those that have parallels with the Westminster parliamentary system. A deposit of £5000 is required for elections for Police Commissioners.
In recent times, a candidate for a major party losing their deposit in an election is regarded as something of an embarrassment.
Read more about this topic: Deposit (politics)
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or kingdom:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)