ANKARA
When some British voters inspect their ballot papers in Thursday’s general election they will be faced with some unusual choices.
Among the usual candidates for mainstream parties such as the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, electors in some U.K. constituencies will be given the chance to choose a representative of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party or the Al-Zababist Nation of Ooog.
The British electorate has long been faced with ‘joke’ parties who do not mind losing their deposit for failing to collect 5 percent of the vote.
The existence and tolerance of these joke candidates provides light relief on election nights when an earnest politician, usually a high-profile member of the government, is shown on television at the announcement of the vote next to a man dressed as Elvis or a fellow candidate in a clown costume.
Perhaps the best known of these prank parties is the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, founded by ‘Screaming Lord Sutch’ in 1963. Sutch, who died in 1999, still holds the record as the longest-serving party leader in the U.K. He was succeeded by a cat.
Despite his death, the party is still going strong and is fielding 16 candidates on Thursday.
Policies include scrapping public transport in favor of magic carpets and, in an acknowledgement of the much-loved comedy duo the Two Ronnies, requiring any migrant called Ronnie to arrive in the U.K. with a similarly named partner.
This year, many of these fringe candidates are standing for the same seat as U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage in South Thanet, Kent. Among these is comedian Al Murray, who is running under the banner of the Free United Kingdom Party.
Among the party’s policies are promises to “make more stuff, sell it for profit,” “free dogs for all” and “something about nurses (people like nurses).”
Farage also faces competition from a man identifying himself as Zebadiah Abu-Obadiah, of the Al-Zebabist Nation of Ooog party, on the ballot paper.
The party pledges to destroy the nearby town of Broadstairs and, in an apparent jibe at Farage’s perceived xenophobic tendencies, force all women to wear the hijab.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who is standing in Witney, to the west of Oxford, also faces his share of frivolous opponents.
The constituency, which has been held by the Conservatives since 1974, will be contested by 12 candidates, including Bobby Smith from the Give Me Back Elmo Party, who is calling for the nearby hamlet of Dean to be demolished and replaced with a 1960s council estate as well as for Witney to be twinned with Houston, Texas.
