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One of the jobs which comes with being a district chief executive is to act as the returning officer at elections. Given that democracy runs to the very heart of what we are as organisations, this is both an onerous responsibility and a privilege. Few people who are not involved in running or helping at elections will have stopped to think about the mammoth organisational and logistical effort which goes into running a smooth election process. Nadeem Aziz is chief executive of Dover DC The system is proven and, despite some high-profile media stories during the 6 May general election, it works well. The increase in the number of postal votes has presented some challenges but is to be welcomed, if it is helping maintain participation. Locally, our election ran very smoothly, with a 70% turnout, the highest for many years. Having local elections next year meant this was only a single election for us this time, with none of the complications of running simultaneous local and general elections seen in some areas. The TV debates produced a flurry of new registrations and clearly contributed to the high turnout. In addition to the election staff, a large number of other council employees are involved as presiding officers, poll clerks, during the count and in numerous other ways. Those not involved are still part of the total team effort, as they help keep our services running, despite losing significant numbers of their colleagues to the election. So, a big thank you to all of them for helping to ensure a very calm, well-run election, which culminated with a result being announced with no real problems during the day or on the night itself. But, we are as always looking to see how we might improve things further, and will watch with interest the Electoral Commission's review to ensure lessons are learned from those places where problems did occur. With local elections next year which, with multiple candidates and voting options, are administratively more complex than the single vote general election, we will want to ensure any learning points are picked up and captured quickly. Democracy and participation appear to be in good shape, however, with the most frequently-asked question by newly registered voters being: ‘Why are Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg not on the ballot paper?' We clearly have some work to do on explaining the detail of the parliamentary system, rather than a presidential one to new voters. Our local democracy days working with local schools are something we enjoy doing but clearly, we still have work to do. Nadeem Aziz is chief executive of Dover DC

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WHITEHALL

District View

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