| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Sir Patrick Mayhew: I recognise the hon. Gentleman's experience in the forum that he describes and in many other forums, including the military one in Northern Ireland. I pay tribute to him for that. As he says, those who wish to participate in local government have to make a declaration. The principles of democracy and non-violence, which are set out in the Mitchell report and which I shall, if the House permits, read out in a minute in their totality, go much further than that. They must have some significance in addition to what the hon. Gentleman describes, because Sinn Fein has carefully and resolutely refused to sign up to them since Mitchell was published. The Government immediately signified their acceptance of those principles, but Sinn Fein did not, because it found that it would be considerably inconvenient to do so. It should do so at once.
It follows from what the Governments have set out in the passage that I have just read that any participant who refused to sign up in that sense to each of the six Mitchell principles would forfeit the right to continue in negotiations with the Governments, and, in our view, with the democratic political parties.
I think that I am justified in reminding the House of the total and absolute commitments that the joint communique requires. They are: to democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues; to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations; to agreement that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission; to the renunciation for themselves, and the opposition of any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations; to agree to abide by
the terms of any agreement reached in all-party negotiations, and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they disagree; and to urging that "punishment" killings and beatings stop, and taking effective steps to prevent such actions.
Those are the Mitchell principles, which go much further than what is required of those in local government. Much significance can be attached to Sinn Fein's refusal to accept them although they are fundamental--as Mitchell says--to any democratic society.
As the Prime Minister has said, Mitchell's proposals on decommissioning cannot be ducked or left to the end of negotiations. The communique stated that these must be addressed also at the beginning of the discussions. As the Prime Minister said in this House:
How that shall be done must be a matter for further discussions with the participants.
I come now to the detail of the Bill. Clause 1 provides for the holding of an election to provide a pool of delegates. The detailed provision on the election is set out in schedule 1, which will be supplemented by an order to be made under it. The order will be subject to approval in draft after debate in this House and another place, and we envisage it being taken, if the present Bill is approved, in the week beginning 29 April.
Five delegates will be elected from each of the 18 parliamentary constituencies by a list system, and a further 20 for Northern Ireland as a whole. As a necessary corollary of the constituency list system, the second part of schedule 1 sets out those who may participate. The list has been drawn up following a consultation exercise. We have taken account of the representations made to us, and have sought to achieve as inclusive a system as is practicable.
It has not been possible to please everybody--indeed, it may not have been possible to please anybody, but that is the nature of the problem with which we are confronted. It is, in our view, the best way forward in what the Prime Minister has described as a unique situation.
Rev. Ian Paisley:
Is it not strange that a party that might get 15 per cent., 20 per cent. or 30 per cent. of the vote will receive two representatives--the same number as a party that gets 1 per cent. of the vote? How can the Secretary of State describe that as democracy? The party that gets 1 per cent. of the vote might get no one elected to the forum, yet could get two people into the negotiations.
Sir Patrick Mayhew:
I recognise the hon. Gentleman's point, and I admit that it is one of the sorenesses.
One of the interesting things about the consultation process was the wide degree of agreement that the smaller parties should find a means by which their voices could be heard in the negotiations. That was widely accepted. Of course, there was great divergence on how that should be achieved and, as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced earlier, we decided that the best way to do it would be to allow representation on a Northern
Ireland-wide basis to the extent of two seats for those parties which are among the top 10 in the aggregate of votes cast for them. We felt that it would not have been right to allow that Northern Ireland-wide constituency basis to be limited to the smaller parties.
Mr. A. J. Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed):
I can save time by putting two points to the Secretary of State. If delegates are being elected in multi-member constituencies of five seats, it would have been better to allow preferential voting, because the single transferable vote system is familiar in the north and the south, and avoids the top-up mechanisms to which the hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) has just referred. Does the Secretary of State recognise that it is important that there should be maximum participation in the elections, and that anything that can be done to maintain voter registration up to the time of the election is important?
Sir Patrick Mayhew:
Voter registration is important, and we shall be circulating appropriate literature.
I appreciate the point that has been made, and it can be made cogently and strongly. We made it clear that we wanted an election system which commanded the widest possible support. We consulted, and it proved impossible to reach universal agreement on any system, including STV.
I will not take the House's time by going through who wanted what and their views, but in light of the views given to us, we devised the system in the Bill, which seeks to combine some of the virtues of each of the main alternatives put to us and to give the people of Northern Ireland the clearest possible choice in the polling booth. I cannot pretend to expect applause from any quarter, but I hope that it will be sufficient to secure that all parties take their place in the elections.
Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire)
rose--
Sir Patrick Mayhew:
I must get on.
Much has been said, quite understandably, about the complications involved. It is not complicated for the voter. The voter puts one cross against one party. The problems come for others after that.
Sir Patrick Mayhew:
I really must get on, because I know what a bore it is when Front-Bench speakers take too long in opening a debate of this character.
When the election is called, the nominating representative of each party which wishes to stand will submit to the chief electoral officer a list of between two and five candidates for any or all of the constituencies of Northern Ireland, and can also submit a regional list of up to 10 candidates, at least two of whom would be names not on any constituency list. Regional seat allocation will help small parties which secure sufficient Province-wide support but which might fail to secure a seat in a constituency to have a chance to be represented. I am required by clause 5 to identify those nominating representatives, and I shall do that after consultation.
As I have already said, the voter's choice is simple. He or she casts a single vote for a single party. Lists of candidates will be on display, and ballot papers will show party names. It has been suggested that, where a large
number of parties appear, there may be scope for confusion. There is force in that suggestion, but there are many competing interests that must be served.
A variety of methods are practised for apportioning seats in countries that regularly conduct elections by party list. None of them appears inherently superior to the others, and, after consultation, we have decided on the system set out in the schedule. It is well recognised, and, I am informed, has been employed in several European countries over the years.
I have already mentioned the aggregation process that will lead to the two additional delegates, and I need not repeat that.
We intend that the disqualification provision for candidates should be the minimum necessary. Only offenders in prison, people detained on account of mental illness and those not of voting age are disqualified by paragraph 17 of the first schedule. The franchise is the same as that for local government elections in Northern Ireland.
Mr. John D. Taylor (Strangford):
If the election is to be based on parliamentary constituencies, why is the franchise not based on the parliamentary franchise?
"The question of decommissioning must be addressed at the beginning and progress must be made. There must be parallel decommissioning, as the Mitchell principle sets out. As the talks proceed, the decommissioning must proceed in parallel with the talks. The precise manner of that is a matter to be determined at the beginning of the talks."--[Official Report, 21 March 1996; Vol. 274, c. 505.]
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |