The 2026 election is already leaving its mark on history and Manx constitutional law expert Professor Peter Edge expects only more to come.
The number of election candidates is 82. That rises to 83 if you count twice one candidate who is standing in two constituencies.
It represents a 28 per cent rise on the 2021 figure of 65.
According to Edge: “It is a record number of candidates, with the next highest being the 73 of 1991.”
The number of women standing in the election is 26, beating the previous record of 16 set in 2021. Last election women made up 25 per cent of the candidates. In this election the number is 31 per cent.
According to Edge’s analysis, we can expect more.
“Aggregating all Manx General Elections since 1919, we find a 78% success rate for incumbents [those already holding a seat], and 46% for candidates as a whole.
“At 53%, a high proportion of the incumbents standing are women. Combining the incumbency effect with the increased number of women candidates, it is not unlikely we will see an increase on the number of women MHKs in 2026, even on the record number elected in 2021.”
Edge completed his PhD in Manx public law at Cambridge and is currently Professor of Law at Oxford Brookes University.
For more, read the full analysis here.