Types of election

Fenland District Council

District elections are held every four years in May.

The Fenland district is divided into 24 wards. It is represented by 39 councillors. View current councillors and their wards.

Parish and Town Councils

Parish and Town Council elections are held every four years in May. They are usually combined with District Council elections. View Town and Parish Council information. 

Cambridgeshire County Council

We hold these elections on behalf of the County Council. They are held every 4 years, usually on the first Thursday in May. There are 8 divisions, 7 of which are single councillor wards and 1 is a dual councillor ward. 

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayoral Election

The next election is due in 2025. Elections take place every four years. 

Find out more about the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Police and Crime Commissioner

These elections take place every four years in May. Find out more about Cambridgeshire's Police and Crime Commissioner. 

Parliamentary (General Election)

MPs are voted into the House of Commons in a Parliamentary General Election. We organise the elections for the North-East Cambridgeshire Parliamentary constituency. This covers the same area as the district boundary but also includes parts of the East Cambridgeshire district (Littleport, Mepal and Sutton) to the south. 

Parliamentary elections are usually held every five years on the first Thursday in May. 

By-elections

A by-election is held to fill a political office that has become vacant between a regularly scheduled election. Common reasons for this are:

• a Councillor/MP has resigned or died
• a Councillor/MP has become ineligible to continue in office

Information about by-elections are published on our Election Notices page. 

Referendum

A referendum asks the electorate to vote on a specific issue. It can be nationwide or just in a specific area. An example is the 2016 EU referendum.

No referendums are currently scheduled. 

Mayoral petitions

Under the Local Government Act 2000, you can petition your council to hold a referendum on whether local people should elect a mayor to lead the council. 

Each local authority has an executive. They are organised as:

• a directly elected Mayor and a council manager appointed by the council; or
• a Leader elected by the Council and a Cabinet of Councillors; or
• a directly elected Mayor and a Cabinet of Councillors

We currently have a Leader (elected by the Council) and a Cabinet of Councillors. 

A mayor is directly elected by all voters in the council's area to be the head of the council's decision making body. Having a directly elected major is a 'constitutional change'. This means a referendum is held to give all voters in Fenland a chance to choose if they want this arrangement. 

A petition must be raised to call a referendum for a directly elected mayor. This needs to be signed by 5% of local government electors that are included in the current Register of Electors. 

The verification figure is published annually in a formal notice. View the Notice of Verification Number (PDF) [61KB] .