Letter received from Mark Isherwood AM
dated 29 July 2003
|
| Dear Sirs |
| Submission to the Richards Commission |
| Whilst I endorse the comments made in submissions
to you by both Nick Bourne AM, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives
in the National Assembly, and others,detailing substantive
opposition to the transfer of primary legislative powers
to the National Assembly, I am concerned that recent Labour
Party submissions have sought to influence the voting
system itself for party advantage. |
| It has caused the Labour Party to campaign
against the system of proportional representation established
by its own Government of Wales Act in respect of the selection
of constituency and regional list candidates. In particular,
they are criticising a system which allows defeated constituency
candidates to be elected by the regional vote. |
| On the contary. the function of statute
in this context should be to establish the electoral mechanism
applicable to all persons and parties competing in an
election, but not to direct political parties on their
own internal mechanism for selection of candidates. This
would be a move towards `elective dictatorship' within
a system. in which party bosses could have complete control
over who is elected and where neither party members nor
the voting public had any genuine choice. |
| Under present arrangements the membership
of each constituency association is able to select from
the party list the candidate it considers the `best' able
to represent its own needs and concerns, and the regional
membership is then able to rank these constituency candidates
through the mechanism of an internal all-member ballot.
As such, a rigorous system of internal democracy allows
members to select and rank candidates at every level in
freedom and on the basis of competitive ability. |
| The alternative proposed would allow political
parties to place candidates tactically according to the
prevailing political climate, thereby populating party
regional lists with individuals who are not required to
stand and face the public in the cross fire of an election
campaign. |
| I would therefore urge you to exclude provisions
limiting the freedom of parties to select their constituency
and regional candidates from your wider consideration
of the electoral system in Wales. |
| Yours sincerely |
|
Mark Isherwood AM
|
|
|
