In what kind of election do candidates not have to belong to any party?

----non-partisan election (novanet)----

As a councillor I am used to Independent Councillors. The difficulty is that though they have independence of accountability they have to win their support by argument and by doing deals with the big battalions who usually hold most of the votes. In the council I serve on there is an overwhelming Conservative majority for the first time (46 seats), next largest are Independents who club together to get committee places etc (7), Lib Dems (5) and Labour (3). The Conservatives used to be the second party and in ten years I can recollect very few cases of a whip being used. The great problem in local government is that all scrutiny panels and committees have to be politically balanced, This means places are allocated in the proportion of the number of seats held by each group. A group of one gets nothing. Independent or non-political is hard work because you are pushing against the tide.