Ed Fordham, Liberal Democratic candidate is tipped to win the seat, which is number six on the Liberal Democrats’ target list.
To support his very tight election battle Fordham has turned to specialist mobile payment service provider, paythru, to help him raise funds. Liberal Democrat supporters can now text “474towin” to 67766 and donate 474p to Fordham’s campaign, or any amount they choose, charging their credit or bank card.
A keen user of social media to connect with voters, Fordham has been blogging, and using Facebook and Twitter since the beginning of the campaign.
Commenting on the use of mobile donations Fordham said: “Even when using social media channels modern political campaigns need to be well funded. With the vast majority of people having a mobile phone it is the ideal way for people to donate. I chose paythru to provide the service because it lets supporters pay with any bank or credit card and works on any phone. I didn’t want to exclude any potential donors.”
Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats raised £2.3 million in the first week of the election campaign (started 6th April 2010) according to the Electoral Commission.