BoroondaraWiki:Political party policy

From Boroondara Wiki

The aim of the BoroondaraWiki Political Party Policy is to provide guidance for staff and editors on the use of political party tags in articles where these may be used.

Purpose

There are several types of article in which people can be portrayed as members of a political party. These include pages related to elections and lists of politicians. This policy aims to clarify when such tagging should and should not take place.

Party affiliations

Elected officials

Wikipedia defines an independent politician as:

...not affiliated to any political party...Some independent politicians may be associated with a political party, perhaps as former members of it, or else have views that align with it, but choose not to stand in its name, or are unable to do so because the party in question has selected another candidate. Others may belong to or support a political party at the national level but believe they should not formally represent it (and thus be subject to its policies) at another level.

As such, unless an elected official or candidate is a confirmed member or has otherwise announced their affiliation with a registered or unregistered political party, they should be listed as 'independent'. They should also be listed as an independent candidate unless a citation can be provided for their political affiliation, especially if they are a living person. BoroondaraWiki contains primarily local information related to local government where political parties are far less pervasive than at the state or federal level.

In other words, the default position should be to consider a politician as independent unless there is evidence to satisfy the guidelines above.

Other people

Political party membership or affiliation may be relevant in cases not related to politicians, such as the use of Template:Infobox person. In this instance, such information should not be included unless a reliable reference can be provided.

Living people

As in all cases, particular care should be taken when providing content that relates to living people. When in doubt, refer to Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons for further guidance.

Ignore this policy

If there are particular circumstances in which it is illogical or otherwise impractical to follow the contents of this policy, please ignore these contents. This policy is not prescriptive in any sense, but is designed to provide guidance only.