Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) (Amendment) Order 2009

I know who the noble Lord is getting at there. I also thank the noble Baroness for her very clear presentation of this order. I welcome it. I declare an interest as a recipient of a pension from all the Assemblies and Parliaments that have existed at Stormont since 1965. Over the past 40 or so years, I have seen it all. I welcome the fact that elections will continue to be on the basis of proportional representation. Education in Northern Ireland is good: we understand proportional representation and we have no difficulty whatever in exercising it. It gives a much fairer political representation across the Province than the first-past-the-post system would. I welcome proportional representation. I live in the west of the Province and if it were not for proportional representation, there would be very few pro-British members elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the western part of Northern Ireland. It is a formula for fair representation. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, that Northern Ireland elections are very fair and free, and set an example, compared with the cheating which goes on in England. I trust that the authorities here will look at the subject more closely in future elections. On vacancies, I agree entirely that the nominating officer should be the leader of the party that was elected in the first instance. For example, someone could be elected as a member of the Democratic Unionist Party—the largest party in Northern Ireland—and could subsequently leave the Democratic Unionist Party to join some other funny party. If that person were then able to nominate his successor, that successor would no longer represent the views of the electorate in the constituency. It is very wise to change the system to one whereby the leader of the party to which the member was elected at the original election continues to be the nominating officer for a subsequent vacancy to be filled.