In an age where political coverage is largely driven by national media, and by what the respective party leaders are saying on any given subject, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that on May 7, we will be voting for individuals to represent us – even if it is via a Party list.

As Christians, we should arguably be at least as concerned about the character, integrity and views of the men or woman we elect as our representatives, as we are about the party or policy platform upon which they are standing.

It often seems that we live in an age of increasingly ‘machine’ driven politics, where candidates are expected to stay ‘on message’. This can mitigate against the important process of getting to really know where they stand on a given issue.

Furthermore, due to the complexities of Proportional Representation, whereby candidates are allocated by their parties to cover vast regions, it can be doubly challenging to find out about the people (and not just the parties) we are electing.

As an aid to help you, engage26 contains information on candidates – please do make every effort to get in touch with them and to engage directly with them where possible.

As election day approaches, and we find ourselves absorbed with the endless cycle of manifesto launches, national policy pronouncements and public spats between leading politicians, let’s keep in mind that the foundation stone of parliamentary democracy is the election of people to represent us – and that necessarily means knowing what we can about them and what they (not just their party leader!) actually thinks.