BRITISH ELECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 21

BRITISH ELECTIONS

WOMEN WILL DECIDE ISSUE

Conservative agents and organisers throughout Great Britain have taken steps to secure all available halls for the final meetings of the General Election campaign on 29th May, says the political correspondent of the London "Evening News." Assuming that nothing unforeseen arises to upset present plans, the salient dates are: Dissolution of Parliament on Friday, 10th May. Nomination on Whit Monday, 20th May. Polling on Thursday, 30th May. Nominations must be lodged on the eighth day after dissolution, excluding Sundays, and tho poll must take place on the ninth day after nominations, excluding Sundays. As Parliament may not meet until after the lapse of twenty days from the date of dissolution, again excluding Sundays, the earliest date on which the. new Parliament can meet iv Tuesday, 4th Juno. I'lus will be on the eve of tho Derby, but there is nothing to prevent the reassembling of Parliament being deferred^ until the following week. The answer to any objection to fixing nominations on Whit Monday is that m any case the holiday would not be observed in the middle of an election, and that nominations are formalities winch tako very little time. Nominations have been lodged on Bank Holiday in by-elections, but never for a General Election. Tho Conservatives tried to steal a march on the opposition parties by selecting 30th May for polling when tho date generally expected was 29th May, and securing most of the available accommodation for indoor meetings. Socialists and Liberals booked up many halls for the 28th in the belief that that dato would be the eve of the poll. There is now a scramble for meeting places for tho 29th. Tho preparations of all parties for the struggle arc well advauced. They have had ample warning of it. Nearly all the candidates have bceu selected, and have only to be adopted formally. -There will be nearly twice as many women candidates this time as there were at tho tost election. The number of party candidates in the constituencies will be approximately as follows:— Conservatives 550 (including about eight women); .Socialists'sso (including nearly thirty women); and Liberals 500 (including from thirty to thirty-five women). There will thus be about 70 women candidates as compared with -11 at (he last election. , Women will decide the election. More than half the 27,000,000 odd electors (over 5,000,000 in excess of the number in 1924) arc women. In some constituencies they outnumber the men voters by nearly two to one.