Talk:2014 West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner by-election

By-election?

Is this really a by-election? I know that elections for replacement candidates to legislatures and councils (in cases where there are electoral districts) are described as such, but for a single-person position like this? Number 57 20:54, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

User:Number 57, I'm not sure that the legislation ever uses the word byelection (§51 clearly doesn't -- http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/13/section/51). But every source and story uses the word, and in the absence of any other, I say we stay with it. doktorb _words^deeds 22:23, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Hmmm. Some sources do call it a by-election, others don't. Discounting blogs, what I've found is:

• Using "by-election": Express & Star, Guardian
• Using "election": BBC, story Press Association (reprinted in numerous local newspaper) refers to it as just an election.

It looks to be a 50/50 split, so I would say we have an active choice. As noted above, I don't believe single-person posts meets the traditional meaning of by-elections (our article by-elections refers only to legislative ones). Number 57 11:46, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

We'll know once there is an official announcement. Until then, this article is premature. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:44, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

The article isn't premature. It's clear from the numerous sources there is going to be an election. Number 57 18:54, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Well let's try to be constructive. We don't have precedent, these roles are new and vacancies are untested. We only have the term 'by election' in our lexicon, rather than, say, the American 'special election'. The post is vacant and, as above, the legislation says an election to fill the vacancy must be held within 35 days. What we could do is maintain the article for now and make a decision on its future in time. doktorb _words^deeds 13:56, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

The term "by-election" has always been used in the UK for executive positions (there have been at least 2 Mayoral by-elections: North Tyneside and Bedford). Birmingham CC are using the term by-election: http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2014/07/by-election-for-west-midlands-police-and-crime-commissioner/. I'm not sure what else you can call it, a by-election is simply an election held "mid-term", whether for a council, parliament, or anything else. Frinton100 (talk) 19:11, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

Table mess

I've just added the 2012 result for comparison but the tables look odd - in particular the three parties who increased their raw totals & shares look as though they all dropped between the two. Does anyone understand the table enough to know what's going on? Timrollpickering (talk) 14:33, 22 August 2014 (UTC)