An election for the leadership of the New Democratic Party (NDP), a social democratic party in Canada, was called for March 24, 2012, in order to elect a permanent successor to Jack Layton who had died the previous summer. The vote was open to all NDP members in a combination of exhaustive ballot and instant-runoff voting with one member, one vote (OMOV); each member voted by preferential ballot in advance, or with a single ballot for each round on the day of the election. The entrance fee was set at $15,000 and each candidate's spending limit was capped at $500,000.