Hartlepool Council election, 2002

Elections to Hartlepool Borough Council in the ceremonial county of County Durham in England were held on 2 May 2002. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control. At the same time an election took place for a directly elected mayor, which was won by independent candidate Stuart Drummond.

Five candidates stood in the election for mayor, one each from the three main political parties and two independents. The Labour candidate for mayor was Leo Gillen, a local businessman who had led the campaign in favour of introducing a directly elected mayor. The Liberal Democrats selected the leader of the council since 2000, Arthur Preece, as their candidate for mayor, while the Conservatives chose councillor Stephen Close. The first independent candidate, Stuart Drummond, was better known as H'Angus the Monkey the official mascot for the local football team Hartlepool United F.C.. The other independent candidate was Ian Cameron, another local businessman.

Drummond campaigned on a pledge to give free bananas to all school pupils under 11 in Hartlepool. He received backing from the football club who paid his deposit and he promised that he would attempt to keep a local sports centre open, improve sporting facilities, tackle crime and reduce the number of councillors. His candidacy began as something of a joke but became more serious as he attracted support during the campaign.

A supplementary voting system was used in the mayoral election with second preferences being used if no candidate received over half of the vote. A local bookmaker initially made Drummond a 100-1 outsider in the mayoral election but soon had to suspend betting after receiving a lot of bets from local people.

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