DEFEATED CANDIDATES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15334, 17 June 1910, Page 6

DEFEATED CANDIDATES.

There is ono feature of the Auckland East election which reminds us of a serious defect in our electoral law. Three of the candidates having polled less than one-fourth of the votes secured by tho successful candidate will forfeit their deposits and will thus bo penalised to the extent of £lO each for having offered their services to the electors. There may have been some reason for this provision when the multiplication of candidates led to vote-splitting and to minority representation, hut now that wo have the second ballot, specially designed for tho removal of these evils, there is net the slightest excuse for its retention. Every qualified elector should be as free to offer himself as a candidate as he is to record his vote, and if it is necessary to provide some means of preventing electors entering a contest as a mero jest it could ho found in a demand that a. candidate’s nomination paper should bo signed by a substantial number of electors. Wo do nob believe ourselves that anything of tho kind would ho necessary, but if it 'were it would ho much loss objectionable than is tho present system. A democratic country like this should not punish the man who is courageous enough to espouse an unpopular cause, and it should not tolerate a law that places the poor candidate at a disadvantage compared with his rich opponent.