WALTON NAZE: Polls opened on Thursday in an eastern England by-election that pits hard-right leader Nigel Farage — often touted as a potential future British prime minister — against perennial joke candidate Count Binface in a vote shunned by the country’s main political parties.

Polling stations in the eastern Essex constituency of Clacton opened at 7am with Farage up against 33 fringe candidates, most prominently Binface, who welcomed the day of the vote by quipping on X: “Bin Day cometh”.

At one polling station, a sample ballot paper with the lengthy list of candidates hanging at the entrance was taller than most voters, a journalist saw. Farage, leader of anti-immigration party Reform UK — which had topped national polls for 18 months before slipping recently — has represented Clacton in parliament since 2024.

He shocked Westminster and beyond when he announced his resignation on July 7 following intense scrutiny of his and Reform’s finances, branding it a “stitch-up”. That triggered a by-election which he vowed to stand in, framing it as “the people of Clacton versus the Establishment”.

“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said in a video released on Thursday, before casting his vote in the town of Walton-on-the-Naze.

England’s mainstream political parties have branded the election a stunt, accusing Farage of seeking to avoid financial scrutiny, and boycotted the vote. That left the Brexit backer facing a list of joke candidates led by Count Binface — self-described “intergalactic space warrior” from the fictional planet Sigma IX who wears a rubbish bin on his head.

Binface — the alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey — has spent almost a decade as a joke candidate in UK politics and traditionally embraces the absurd. But in Clacton he is grabbing all the attention, and while analysts give Farage a clear victory, Binface could win as much as 20 percent of the vote, according to polling.

Political analysts have downplayed the vote’s wider significance in a constituency that overwhelmingly backed Brexit a decade ago. “It will be astonishing if Farage were not to win,” political scientist John Curtice said. But some say it shows Farage’s election gambit has backfired.

“Farage’s plan to turn this by-election into a serious political battle failed,” Queen Mary University of London politics professor Stijn van Kessel said, noting the resulting spectacle “makes Farage look rather silly”.

‘We can’t decide’

Clacton voter Phil, in his 50s, appeared to agree. “It’s not going to change anything,” he said, noting if Farage won as expected a parliament committee probe into his finances that paused when he resigned would restart. “I get what he’s saying, but we can’t decide,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2026