Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) (Amendment) Order 2009

I, too, support the Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) (Amendment) Order 2009. It appears to be a progressive advancement in the transparency of the representation of the people of Northern Ireland. Previously, it appeared to be a bizarre and truly undemocratic situation whereby a candidate for the Northern Ireland Assembly could personally appoint five unknown individuals who would be able to fill the seat should a vacancy arise during the four-year term. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate, as set out in Article 6, that such a vacancy should rest with a party’s nominating officer until such time as the electorate is able to express its full wish for the six-seat constituency on a proportional basis. However, one anomaly that appears to arise is that such a system of secret personal nominees will continue to pertain for independent members who are elected outside a previously established political party. Worse still, the current legislation proposes that rather than making the nomination before election, candidates will only have to do so if and when elected. Surely, it would be democratically preferable if such a process not only happened before the election, but that the list of individuals was published so that the electorate in any particular constituency would be aware of the likely replacement if a vacancy were to arise. Could the noble Baroness explain whether consideration was given to that at any time and why does it not feature in the legislation as currently outlined? Finally, I would be very grateful if the noble Baroness could outline whether consideration was given to those candidates who stood at the Assembly Election in 2007 and stood in more than one constituency. I wonder whether such blanket candidacy should be banned and, if not, what should occur if a candidate were successfully elected to more than one constituency?