Unitary Authority of Bedford elections from 2009 to 2015

Summary

A total of 51 Unitary Authority Wards held elections in Bedford between 2009 and 2015. The database holds elections for 3 separate years over the 7 year period. Bedford held whole council elections once every four years. This can create a situation where an unhappy electorate can replace an entire council in a single election. As a result, these councils can appear to be more volatile than those with partial council elections.

Participation

Average participation in Bedford over the 7 years was 51.41%. This was 3.28 percentage points higher than the average for all Unitary Authority Councils holding elections in the same year (48.13%). Turnout was higher than the average for Unitary Authority councils in 2011 when it was 6.58 percentage points higher. Turnout was never lower than the average for Unitary Authority councils over the period.

The Party System

This section examines the party system in Bedford that existed in terms of number of seats won by each group in each election. In the analysis below, a party is considered to have won an election for the authority if it wins more seats than any other group. The extent to which a single party group wins all of the elections during the period is a measure of the dominance of a single party.

Conservative candidates won more seats than the other candidates in over half of elections held between 2009 and 2015. These candidates won the most seats in 2 of the 3 elections held. After Conservative candidates, the next most successful group over the 7 years were Liberal Democrat candidates. These candidates won the most seats in 1 of the 3 elections held.

Number of Years Party Won Most Seats

Party Winning Most Seats by Year