The 2016 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election took place from July to August 2016 to select a leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. The incumbent leader, Natalie Bennett, announced in May 2016 that she was not going to stand for re-election. The election was won by a joint platform of the party's former leader and only MP Caroline Lucas with the party's work and pensions spokesperson Jonathan Bartley. At the same time, Amelia Womack was re-elected as deputy leader. Background Prior to 2008, the party had elected spokespeople called principal speakers instead of an elected leadership. Caroline Lucas, then an MEP for South East England, was elected as the first leader of party in 2008 following a rule change. In the new system, it was mandated that there would be leadership elections every two years. Lucas was elected as the first Green Party MP, for the constituency of Brighton Pavilion in 2010, and in the same year she was re-elected unopposed as leader. In 2012, she announced she would not be seeking re-election because "I want to give other people the opportunity to get well known, to have some profile in the party, hopefully to use that to get themselves elected as well." In the 2012 leadership election, Natalie Bennett, a journalist for The Guardian, was elected to succeed Lucas as party leader. She was re-elected unopposed in the 2014 leadership election and led the party in the 2015 general election. At the general election, the Green Party's vote share increased from 1.0% to 3.8%, but they did not win any additional seats. Following the 2016 local elections, in which the Green Party lost four local councillors but came third in the London Assembly and in the London mayoral election, Bennett defended her record as leader. On 15 May 2016, Bennett announced she would not be seeking re-election, saying: "There have been times when I got things right, and times when I got things wrong, but that’s because I'm not a smooth, spin-trained, lifelong politician." Procedure According to the Green Party's constitution, candidates must have been members of the party for three years or more at the close of nominations, and need to have signatures supporting their nomination from a minimum of twenty other party members. Elections are constitutionally mandated to take place every two years by a postal ballot of all members. The