TUSC candidate count reaches 476, with two weeks to go before nominations close

The number of candidates standing under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) umbrella in May's local council elections has reached 476, after the TUSC national steering committee approved the latest batch of applications.

These candidates are contesting seats in 80 local authorities - so at least half the councils with elections in May will see a challenge to the austerity consensus of the establishment parties.

A full list of the candidates so far, broken down into regions and including the latest applications agreed, can be found at www.tusc.org.uk/txt/293.pdf.

If you agree with the TUSC Local Elections Policy Platform - which commits TUSC candidates, amongst other points, to oppose all cuts to council jobs, services, pay and conditions if they were elected - you could still stand as a candidate (see http://www.tusc.org.uk/policy for the full platform). You would be joining a real 'people's army against the establishment', in Nigel Farage's phrase, not the reactionary populism of UKIP, whose real position on public services, privatisation, defending workers' rights etc is fundamentally no different from the other put-big-business-first parties.

But time is running short. The official nomination papers have to be handed in by Thursday 24th April so you need to act straight away to get the necessary 'Certificate of Authorisation' to appear on the ballot paper as a TUSC candidate.

That means completing the council candidate authorisation application form available on the Candidates page of the TUSC website at http://www.tusc.org.uk/candidates.php and e-mailing it as soon as possible to Clive Heemskerk, the TUSC National Election Agent, at cliveheemskerk@socialistparty.org.uk

Note to local TUSC election agents

If you are a local election agent you should receive the TUSC 'Certificates of Authorisation' for your candidate(s) by Monday. You can hand in nomination papers to the council's Returning Officer before you receive a Certificate from TUSC but then you will have to go back a second time to hand in the Certificate so it's best to take in everything together. So if you haven't received your Certificates by early next week, get in touch.

Don't forget, there are guidance notes for TUSC candidates and agents on electoral procedures on the TUSC website at http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/283.pdf