On Monday the Welsh Office published their 'Green Paper on future electoral arrangements for the National Assembly for Wales'.
In the first place let's deal with what I think are the no controversial aspects of the Green Paper:
The proposal to increase the fixed term of the Assembly from 4 to 5 years, dual candidacy, Multiple mandates (or the 'Alun Cairns Question') to be prohibited.
Which leaves the question of how we elect Assembly Members?
This is something I did post about last year see How we elect assembly members.
In the green paper there are two options: keep the status quo of 40:20 or change the balance to 30:30.
In the first place I'm not sure that it's totally necessary for the wards of assembly members to mirror those of parliament. But if we say that it may be desirable, my preference would be 2 member STV based on the Westminster constituencies, as I believe it would be better to vote for named individuals rather than the use of regional lists where you vote for a party and where an AM is expected to represent a very large area.
Other options where also looked at by the Electoral Reform Society in 2010 in a publication called ‘Reduce and Equalise’ and the Governance of Wales
In the first place let's deal with what I think are the no controversial aspects of the Green Paper:
The proposal to increase the fixed term of the Assembly from 4 to 5 years, dual candidacy, Multiple mandates (or the 'Alun Cairns Question') to be prohibited.
Which leaves the question of how we elect Assembly Members?
This is something I did post about last year see How we elect assembly members.
In the green paper there are two options: keep the status quo of 40:20 or change the balance to 30:30.
In the first place I'm not sure that it's totally necessary for the wards of assembly members to mirror those of parliament. But if we say that it may be desirable, my preference would be 2 member STV based on the Westminster constituencies, as I believe it would be better to vote for named individuals rather than the use of regional lists where you vote for a party and where an AM is expected to represent a very large area.
Other options where also looked at by the Electoral Reform Society in 2010 in a publication called ‘Reduce and Equalise’ and the Governance of Wales
1 comment:
I think maybe changing the named constituencies to mirror Parliamentary ones is sensible, with the remainder of seats being done with regional top-ups. I'm of the belief that ths should be expanded further and Local Authorities should be grouped to mirror the same constituencies in some way.
Dual candidacyu is something I feel very strongly about and nobody that holds Office at any level should be allowed to stand at any other level or anywhere else until AFTER they have resigned their current seat. Including Lords.
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