Winchester by-election, 1997

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The Member of Parliament for Winchester, Hampshire, England, Mark Oaten, (Liberal Democrat) was unseated on an electoral petition on October 6, 1997. Mr Oaten had originally been declared elected with a majority of two votes after many recounts and haggling over spoilt ballots. The High Court held that since the 54 votes declared void for want of the Official Mark would have changed the result if counted, and the court could not be sure they were not the product of a mistake, then the result was uncertain. They therefore allowed the petition and declared the election void.

The byelection was held on November 20, and resulted in a clear win by Oaten. Gerry Malone, the former Conservative MP who had lost his seat in the general election, was criticised as a 'poor loser'. The Labour Party obtained their worst ever results in a parliamentary election, in part because they hardly campaigned at all and instead focused their priorities on a by-election in Beckenham held on the same day.

Both the original and rerun election involved an incidence of a candidate using an attempted confusing description, with Richard Huggett describing himself in the general election as Liberal Democrat Top Choice For Parliament (leading to Oaten, the official Lib Dem candidate, to use the ballot paper description Liberal Democrat Leader Paddy Ashdown) and in the by-election as a 'Literal Democrat'. The Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 put an end to this practice.

[edit] Results

By-election 1997: Winchester
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Oaten	37,006	68.0	+26.0
	Conservative	Gerry Malone	15,450	28.4	−13.6
	Labour	Patrick Davies	944	1.7	−8.8
	UK Independence	Robin Page	521	1.0	+0.2
	Monster Raving Loony	Lord David Sutch	316	0.6	+0.1
	Literal Democrat	Richard Huggett	51	0.1	−0.9
	Natural Law	Rosemary Barry	48	0.1
	Independent Conservative	Roger Everest	40	0.1
Majority			21,556
Turnout				68.7
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

[edit] General Election result, 1997

General Election 1997: Winchester
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Oaten	26,100	42.1
	Conservative	Gerry Malone	26,098	42.0
	Labour	Patrick Davies	6,528	10.5
	Referendum Party	Peter Strand	1,598	2.6
	Independent Liberal Democrat	Richard Huggett	640	1.0
	UK Independence	Derek Rumsey	476	0.8
	Independent (politician)	John Browne	307	0.5
	Monster Raving Loony	Peter Stockton	307	0.5
Majority			2
Turnout
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing