Liberal Democrats face soaring fines for failing to win enough votes

Oh dear. Not only have the Liberal Democrats only won eight seats so far compared to the 56 taken in 2010, many candidates face losing their deposit.

If a candidate fails to win five per cent of the vote in their desired constituency then they are subject to a £500 fine. Unfortunately the Liberal Democrats have had many candidates do exactly that. So much so that the Twitter account LibDem Deposits has been set up just to keep a tally of their fines:

Going to be honest, we didn't think we'd be *quite* this busy tonight.

— LibDem Deposits (@LibDemDeposits) May 8, 2015

It started off modestly:

£500 — LibDem Deposits (@LibDemDeposits) May 7, 2015

Then spiralled:

£14,000

— LibDem Deposits (@LibDemDeposits) May 8, 2015

The account is now reporting that the current total of fines is an enormous £157,000. This would mean that out of the 631 Liberal Democrat candidates that ran 314 failed to get five per cent of the vote:

£157,000

— LibDem Deposits (@LibDemDeposits) May 8, 2015

In the 2010 election the party did not lose any deposits.

Update: The number of Lib Dems who need to return their deposit has increased to a whopping 335. That means the total bill for the party is £167,500. Given that the party received £234,000 in the first month of the campaign, they are at least breaking even.