Selection of candidates for the 2009 Euro Election:

• RESULT of the selection of candidates for the 2009 Euro Election London regional list: 1. Sarah Ludford ; 2. Jonathan Fryer; 3. Dinti Batstone; 4. Christopher Le Breton; 5. John Pindar; 6. Simon James; 7. Caroline Persson; 8. Ben Jones. Other regions: http://tinyurl.com/224nsu

Sarah Ludford MEP: www.sarahforlondon.org

Jonathan Fryer: jonathan@jonathanfryer4europe.com

http://www.alde.eu/ ; http://www.libdemmeps.org.uk/index.html

Archived, from the selection:

• JONATHAN DAVIES, Senior Returning Officer, English European selections, explains all: 'The Selection Campaign for the selection of the Party's candidates for the next European Parliamentary elections is now beginning. The list of Euro candidates is at: http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/european-selections.html and reproduced below. Hustings meetings are at: http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showOrganisation.php?Organisation=629 . There is an online discussion forum at http://forum.libdems.org.uk/ . Access to the online hustings requires a Liberal Democrats Account. This is a username and password that works across a range of party websites, including the party's members only website (http://login.libdems.org.uk), Flock Together (http://www.flocktogether.org.uk) and our manifesto consultation site (http://manifesto.libdems.org.uk). • If you don't have a Liberal Democrats Account yet, you can register online straight away at http://login.libdems.org.uk/register.php . Ballot papers together with the manifestos from all the candidates will be posted out at the beginning of October. You should have received your ballot paper by 22nd October. If you haven't, you can contact missing.ballots@libdems.org.uk until 31st October. (Any queries must come direct from the person who hasn't received their ballot paper).

• List of candidates:

Dinti Batstone 07814 679 366 / dinti@dinti4europe.org.uk / www.dinti4europe.org.uk

Jonathan Fryer 140 Bow Common Lane, London E3 4BH / 07792 411 331 / jonathan@jonathanfryer4europe.com / www.jonathanfryer4europe.com

Stephen Guy, 14 Conegra Road, High Wycombe; mail@steveguy.org.uk ; http://www.steveguy.org.uk/

Matthew Harris 44a Crescent Road, New Barnet, London, EN4 9RF / 020 8440 5866 / matthew.harris@hotmail.co.uk / http://matthew4europe.blogspot.com / manifesto: http://harrismatthew4.googlepages.com/matthewh11.pdf

Simon James 40 Ancaster Crescent, New Malden, KT3 6BE / 020 8942 3541 / simon@simon4europe.org.uk / www.simon4europe.org.uk

Ben Jones: 07751 008 626; ben_idris@yahoo.com .

Christopher Le Breton 39 Azof Street, Greenwich, London, SE10 0EG / chris@chrislebreton.com / www.chrislebreton.com / 07801 188768

Sarah Ludford: www.sarahforlondon.org / sarah@sarahforlondon.org. / 0207 288 2526

Caroline Persson 56 Lytham Road, Rugby, Warwickshire / +32 477 90 17 20 / cp4mep@gmail.com

John Pindar 020 8671 5938 / pindarj@hotmail.com

John Stonehouse First Floor Flat, 183 Ladbroke Grove, London W10 6HH / 07771 772 334 / j.stonehouse@imperial.ac.uk

• To ensure fairness to all candidates, the Party's selection rules impose a number of requirements on Local Parties. Whilst individual Local Party officers can of course support individual candidates for selection, it is essential that the Local Party itself does not support any candidate or do anything which could give an unfair advantage to any candidate. In particular:

1. If you are holding any Local Party events (including branch events) between now and the close of the selection ballots on 7th November, you must not invite any of the candidates unless you invite all of them. This applies to meetings, social events and campaign activities. Please put details of all such events on Flock Together www.flocktogether.org.uk The candidates have been told to look there for details of events which are happening around the Party, so provided you put details on Flock Together, there is no need to send personalised invitations to individual candidates.

2. Any Local Party newsletter you send out between now and 7th November (including your AGM notice if it goes out during this period) may include details of the selection processes, including details of the hustings and close of poll, but must be neutral between the candidates. You can either list all the candidates or none of them. Comments about the selection in Local Party newsletters must be agreed in advance with the Returning Officer.

3. If one of your members is a candidate for selection, you must be especially careful not to give him or her unfair advantage in the selection campaign. There is no objection to continuing to publicise the Party’s elected representatives and campaigners in Focus and other publications for the public even though they may be candidates in these selections, but any mention of someone who is a candidate for selection in publications directed primarily at the Party’s membership may well be unfair on other candidates. If you are in any doubt as to what is appropriate, please contact the Returning Officer for your Region.

4. The candidates can issue material in accordance with the Selection Rules but individuals must not take it upon themselves to issue material on behalf of any candidate.

5. There must be no public endorsement of individual applicants by speakers at social events or official Party meetings.

• Full details of the selection process are being sent to all eligible members for whom the Party has an email address later this week. This will include details of where to find the list of candidates in your region, along with contact details for them, details of where to find the list of hustings - which is already up at http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showOrganisation.php?Organisation=629 - and also details of how to take part in the online hustings we are running.

• If you are sending communications to your members between now and 7th November, please do remind them about the selection, close of poll and the hustings. Please also encourage any of your members whose email addresses are not in the party's membership records - and so are missing out on emails about the selections - to register their email address for further updates at http://www.libdems.org.uk/support/email-check.html If you have any queries about the Selection Procedure, please contact the Returning Officer for your Region.

• 'THE D'HONDT METHOD (equivalent to Jefferson's method) is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt. This system is less proportional than the other popular divisor method, Sainte-Laguë, because D'Hondt slightly favors large parties and coalitions over scattered small parties, whereas Sainte-Laguë is neutral.

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Macedonia, The Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and Wales are among the places that use this allocation system.

The system has also been used in Northern Ireland for allocating the ministerial positions in the Northern Ireland Executive, for the 'top-up' seats in the London Assembly, in some countries during elections to the European Parliament . . . ' More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Hondt_method