General Election 2015: local hustings guide

polling stationThinking of running hustings in the run-up to the election?  Download our handy Hustings Guide and find full details in the Electoral Commission’s booklet.

Find tips and useful ideas to ensure the smooth running of your event: legal guidelines, inviting candidates, encouraging questions from local people and communities, choosing a venue, appointing a chair, timing, format and how to organise questions and ensure candidates have time to respond.

Local hustings provide an invaluable space for local people from different traditions and backgrounds to come together, to raise issues that matter and to engage with the democratic process.

Faiths Together in Lambeth is holding local hustings for the borough’s three constituencies in an Islamic centre, a church and a synagogue on 21, 22 & 23 Aprildownload the flyer here.  Hounslow Methodist Church held a Faith in Politics event last year and invited members of Hounslow Friends of Faith.

The date of the General Election is Thursday 7 May.  No-one can vote unless their name is on the Electoral Register.  The deadline for registering to vote is Monday 20 April and this can be done online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

  * * * * *

Related to this topic, the World Congress of Faiths is holding an event To Vote or Not to Vote? with West Central Liberal Synagogue, 21 Maple Street, W1T 4BE on Thursday 19 March 6.30-8.30pm, looking at what three major world faiths – the Baha’í faith, Buddhism and Islam – teach about Civic Responsibility.  Download further information here.

Mayoral and GLA hustings

Hustings at St James's Church, Piccadilly, organised by London Churches Group for Social Action, Evangelical Alliance and Faith to Engage on 18th April at 6pm.

There are at least three hustings open to the public and hosted by religious or multifaith groups taking place in the lead up to the elections on Thursday 3rd May.  Leave a comment if you know of others – particularly local events.

Mayoral Candidates Boris Johnson, Ken Livingston, Brian Paddick & Jenny Jones at The Gourmet Theatre, Ruach Ministries, 197-199 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7HY on Thursday 12th April at 6pm, organised by Operation Black Vote.

GLA Candidates Jonathan Bartley, Rob Blackie, Michael Mitchell and Val Shawcross at Karibu Education Centre, 7 Gresham Road, Brixton, Sw9 7PH on Tuesday 17th April at 5.30 for 6pm, organised by Faiths Together in Clapham.

Mayoral Candidates Boris Johnson, Ken Livingston, Brian Paddick & Jenny Jones at St James’s Church, 197 Piccadilly, W1J 9LL on Wednesday 18th April 6-8pm, organised by London Churches Group, Evangelical Alliance and Faith to Engage.