UK local by-elections, 2024

[Duke of York]

8 local by elections tomorrow. surprised there has been no writeup from Andrew Teale yet

[Duke of York]

even though there are by elections every week until the 24th of April it seems Teale won't be posting for all of them. I wonder why.

He said this in the Yaxley and Farcet writeup: We’re now on the glidepath down to May’s ordinary local elections across England and Wales, and although there is enough material for a column every week up until 2nd May the actual content for the next month or so will be a little sparse. Partly because of this, and partly because there aren’t as many Conservative councillors as there used to be, there are just four Conservative by-election defences pencilled in before the ordinary local elections on 2nd May.

[Duke of York]

Thursday 28 March

Andrew Teale’s preview

Neath Port Talbot; Neath East



Somerset; Somerton



Orkney Islands; Stromness and South Isles



As an aside, while trying to understand bloc voting share changes (top vote vs average vote wtf lol) I was reminded of the insane old method many NSW councils used to use. Preferential bloc voting!
So you go to all the hassle of having preferential ballot papers (with group voting tickets and everything!) you then distribute preferences till one candidate gets a majority. Then you start the count again with their votes redistributed... till you fill as many seats as vacant.
Spectacularly pointless. The Australian obsession for preferential voting. We even invented double preferential open list d'Hondt, but that's another story.
A results pdf of us actually counting votes like this

What's the reason for mostly independents running in the Orkney Islands?

[Duke of York]

http://opencouncildata.co.uk/byelections.php

according to this there are 42 by elections scheduled for May 9th! Why not hold these with the May 2nd elections?

[Duke of York]

http://opencouncildata.co.uk/byelections.php

according to this there are 42 by elections scheduled for May 9th! Why not hold these with the May 2nd elections?

Only Kilwinning, North Ayrshire has the date next to it so I assume the others haven't been scheduled yet.

Oh ok. I misread the chart. Wonder why those elections weren't but with local elections.

[Duke of York]

Good result for Labour in the misnamed Neath ward - new Welsh leader bounce?

its plausible.

[Duke of York]

http://opencouncildata.co.uk/byelections.php
open council is now updated to include 68 by elections that will be held with the regularly scheduled elections on May 2nd

seems there is one scheduled for May 9th. with ten by elections yet to be scheduled. though according to a link shared earlier three of those including one in Manchester will be held May 2nd.

[Duke of York]

Tuesday 16 April

Andrew Teale's preview

Pembrokeshire; St Ishmael's

Con 297 (43.4%, +18.9 on the same candidate as an Independent)
Ind Jenkins 242 (35.3%, new)
Ind Harwood 69 (10.1%, -2.4 on the same candidate as a Green)
Ind Simister 52 (7.6%, new)
Ind Worsley 25 (3.6%, new)
(changes from 2022, when the only party candidate was Harwood as a Green)

Con gain from Ind

interesting the Conservatives the one party that decided to contest the seat gained it.