How to have a candidate in your area

Many Christians feel disenfranchised as they cannot conscientiously vote for any of the major parties.

But it does not have to be that way!

In fact, you did have a Scottish Christian Party candidate on your Regional ballot paper in the last Scottish election.

However you may not have had a Christian Party candidate in your constituency. If so, this is because there are not ten Christians in your constituency who can sufficiently see the vision in order to put down £10 each, once a year, for five years. This amounts to £500, the price of the deposit for a candidate. For the price of a typical week’s collection in your local congregation you could have had a Scottish Christian Party candidate standing in your constituency as well as in your Region.

For the local elections in May 2012, it will be even easier. Read about it below.

If you would like to know more about the Scottish Christian Party in your area, click here to send us an email or telephone 01463 796952.

Calling for more Christian candidates

“If a trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?”

1Cor 14:8.

What does it take to have a Christian Party candidate in your Parliamentary constituency? Not much.

1. First, you need one Christian prepared to put his/her name as a candidate on the ballot paper with (Scottish) Christian Party “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship” beside their name. I count this an honour and I hope you would too.

2. Ten people on the Electoral Roll for that constituency - who will sign the nomination paper for this candidate, and one to act as Election Agent. This applies to a Westminster Election but ten signatures are not necessary for the Scottish Parliament, so it is even easier. Local Council elections are easier still; you just need one person to witness your signature.

3. What does this cost? Local Council elections have no deposit at all, but if you want to produce and distribute a leaflet, you need some money and some supporters. For Parliamentary elections, the deposit is £500, which will be recovered if the candidate gets more than 5% of the votes cast. The major parties get most of their deposits back, and it is usually news if they lose their deposit.

4. £500 = 10 Christians x£50 or 50 Christians x£10. If one divides by the five years of a parliamentary term this works out at £10/year from 10 Christians for five years; very affordable and a good use of money for the Lord.

Are there ten such Christians in your constituency?

Abraham prayed for Sodom and he brought the number down from fifty to ten. The Lord matched him every step. When he got to ten, Abraham stopped. “And Abraham said, perhaps ten shall be found there? And He said, I will not destroy it for the sake of ten” Gen 18:32. Abraham thought that he had done enough - but he had not!

Do you not have ten in your constituency who will act?

Possibly not: “And I sought for a man among them, that should repair the hedge, and stand in the gap: but I found none” Ezekiel 22:30.

Will you be disenfranchised just because no-one would put their name on the ballot paper?

Objection 1: But I don't know how to campaign.

You don’t have to. Let me allay your fears. Paper candidates don’t usually campaign. What is a paper candidate?

In 2009 there was a by-election in the Inverness West Ward. The Labour and Conservative Parties each had a candidate on the ballot paper. However they did not expect to win. So their candidates put in very little effort. There were hardly any posters on lamp-posts and there were no candidates at any of the three Polling Stations on voting day. This is a paper candidacy: putting your name on the ballot paper so that people can vote for you although you do not campaign. In another by-election in the Inverness South Ward in Nov 2011, the Labour candidate had no leaflet, no posters and did not even turn up at the counting of the votes! Yet she got more votes than the Tories.

Objection 2: What's the point in a paper candidate?

It gives people and Christians in particular an opportunity to vote for a Christian - instead of abstaining or spoiling their vote. It gives us the opportunity to pick up protest votes.

The major parties use paper candidates all the time. There are places they have no expectation of winning, but they still stand a candidate because they expect to recover their deposit, so it does not even cost them £500! Local council elections don’t need a deposit so it is even cheaper to have a paper candidate.

Paper candidates raises awareness of Scottish Christian Party. It keeps the Christian Party before the mind of every voter who looks at the ballot paper. It proclaims Christ’s Lordship to every voter in your constituency - a very cost effective way to do so. It publicises the Christian Party whenever any news media refers to the candidates in the election.

The Lordship of Christ is proclaimed publicly.

It helps us to find out our core vote. Core voters like to see their Party on the ballot paper even if they do not win.

We must begin somewhere, and standing for the Council election is a good place. When one continues to build support after the election, it helps to be able to say that one stood as a candidate.

Our candidates learn the political process and build up experience for the future.

Paper candidates maintains a visible presence. Our candidates will become identified as the Christian voice in this Ward. If we have enough such candidates, the Christian public will begin to see that it can be done. “Yes, we can!”

Other political parties take note of every vote, and they will take note of what we are speaking about. They will begin to address those issues about which we care - just as the Greens, the nationalists, and indeed every political party influence each other.

Objection 3: The media will ask me questions that I cannot answer.

1. The media don’t usually bother with minor parties. It takes politicians all their time to get the media to pay attention to them. You will not be the centre of attention unless you are able to draw attention to yourself.

2. Politicians set their own agenda. The major parties have set out their stall and it does not include the things of major concern to Christians, such as interfering with the declaration of the Gospel and living according to Christ’s commandments.

3. When people ask what you are standing for, you simply mention the things which concern you! Is this difficult? Is it not good to have a platform on which to articulate the things which concern Christians? Then you ask them what concerns them which has several advantages. 1. it shows you care. 2. you learn what the local issues are. 3. it may open up the Gospel to them. 4. the Gospel is brought in at a practical level instead of being seen as an optional extra to life which one can ignore. This is political evangelism and one would think that concerned Christians would jump at the opportunity to show practical Christianity which can yield good fruit.

Objection 4: I won’t know what to say at hustings.

1. You don’t have to say anything if you do not want to. You do not need to attend hustings if you do not want to. Your diffidence is shared by other party candidates who are frightened about the same thing. At local council level, candidates often do not turn up from the major parties. The reason for this is that party managers don’t want their candidates saying the wrong thing, or to have their lack of knowledge shown up - so the party machine runs their campaign for them.

2. Hustings are going out of fashion. It is usually with difficulty that a hustings can be organised, and even then it is often churches which organise them.

Anything more than this is an extra. A welcome extra – but extra. We can help you with this, such as:

1. Producing a leaflet with your photograph and bullet point issues.

2. Handing them out to as many people as you can meet: this is a golden opportunity for Christian outreach and you will have some interesting conversations. Is this not what Christians want?

So what should you do?

If you live in the Highlands and Islands then click here to email Dr Donald Boyd if you have a question.

If you live elsewhere in Scotland, you will find contact details here.

Every blessing!

“And Jesus said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
Luke 18:27.

Scottish Christian Party