Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) (Amendment) Order 2009

The Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) (Amendment) Order 2009 is, technically, a very accomplished piece of work. However, we should recognise that the immediate effect of both orders before us is slightly to shift power from the electorate to the political elites and to the political class in the north in a very small way. I do not want to overstate that. Like my noble friend Lord Kilclooney, I want to look again at Article 6: it makes a new provision about the circumstances which will follow when Assembly seats become vacant. When an elected MLA is not a member of a registered political party, they have to provide a list of six persons in rank order to succeed him or her in the event of a vacancy. More importantly, when a vacancy occurs in a registered political party, the nomination is in the hands of the party nominating officer or leader, even if the individual creating the vacancy does not continue to be a party member. My noble friend Lord Kilclooney has just referred to such a possibility. There is one lacuna in the order: it does not explain the Government’s thinking on this point. It may be exactly as my noble friend Lord Kilclooney has expressed it, but there is no actual explanation about why this route has been chosen. In her introduction, the noble Baroness made the point that in PR elections a by-election can distort the balance in a constituency. None the less, many countries in that circumstance go ahead and hold an election and, as it were, take the risk of consulting the electorate. It is not always the case that the countries operating the PR system choose to say that they will nominate in order to preserve the existing party balance. I am asking for some clarification of the Government’s thinking. It may be the same as that of my noble friend Lord Kilclooney. It is perfectly reasonable to think that it should be done that way, but nothing in the order explains why the Government have come to that conclusion.