August 3019 National Party Leadership Election

The August 3019 National Party Leadership Election was triggered following the resignation of Fillmore Grey as Leader of the National Party and Director of Wiltshire after his defeat in the Wiltshire Independence Referendum on August 26, 3019. Nominations are set to open on the August 28 and close on August 29. The first ballot will be held on August 30, with subsequent ballots being held on August 31 if no candidate received a majority on the first ballot on August 30.

This election came as quite the shock to many and is expected to take place extremely quickly, due to the National Party needing a leader for the upcoming September 3019 Wiltshire Legislative Elections. Grey's popularity was high and so it came as a surprise when he resigned and left a power vacuum within the party. It is still unclear whether this series of events has hurt the National Party's standing in the polls.

Procedures

Following a formal notification presented by the Party Leader to the National Party Executive Committee, the Chair of the National Party (currently Mr. Zach Rees AM) sends a notification to the Leader of the Assembly (currently Mr. Bernard Canterbury) that at least one ballot will need to be held for the leadership to select a successor. A candidate for the leadership requires a majority of National Party AMs (36) to be elected. If no candidate receives the majority in the first ballot, a second ballot will be held with a new passing threshold of 15% support. If no candidate still doesn't receive the majority then a third ballot will be held with a passing threshold of 30%, then 45%. This means that there should only ever be a maximum of 5 rounds. If there is only one candidate by the conclusion of nominations, the single candidate is elected leader unanimously.

The election for leader and the election for deputy leader are not the same and are not held simultaneously. In the event the incumbent Deputy Leader, Lucy Hobbs, wins the election for leader or resigns then there will be a separate election for her successor.

Candidates

There are currently three candidates eligible to go forward onto the first ballot;

Candidate	Seconder	Announced	Office(s)	Nominations
Lucy Hobbs AM	Ray Banes AM	26 August, 3019	Deputy Director of Wiltshire Deputy Leader of the National Party Minister for Work and Pensions	17 nominations
Jim Balfour AM	Michele Yarner AM	26 August, 3019	Former Junior-Minister for Housing Home Minister	12 nominations
Amy Raab AM	Don Halloway AM	27 August, 3019	Former Deputy Leader of the Green Party Minister for Transport	5 nominations

Withdrawn Candidates

There has been 1 candidate who has withdrawn their name following the conclusion of nominations;

Candidate	Seconder	Announced	Withdrew	Office(s)	Nominations
Bernard Canterbury	Gerald Stevenson AM	27 August, 3019	29 August, 3019	Former Leader of Wiltshire First Leader of the Wiltshire Provincial Assembly Former Minister for Trade and International Development	28 nominations

Candidates Eliminated

There has been 1 candidate who has not received sufficient support to continue further into the election;

Candidate	Seconder	Announced	Eliminated	Office(s)	Support at Elimination
Rodrick Sword AM	Holly Pauro AM	27 August, 3019	29 August, 3019	Former Green Party Spokesperson for Defence (April-November 3018)	3 nominations (5 needed)

Results

There has not been any ballots as of yet. The first ballot will be held at 12.00 PM on August 30, 3019.

Candidate	Nominations	First Ballot
Lucy Hobbs	17	TBD
Jim Balfour	12	TBD
Amy Raab	5	TBD
Bernard Canterbury	28	Withdrawn
Rodrick Sword	3	Eliminated