Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) (Amendment) Order 2010 — 24 Nov 2010 at 21:08

The majority of MPs voted to update local election procedures in Northern Ireland; introducing greater consistency with European and parliamentary elections.

When introducing this order to the House of Commons Hugo Swire MP explained[1] that: "some minor procedural updates have been applied to European and parliamentary elections that, for consistency, should also be applied to Assembly elections." Attention was drawn to the following provisions:

  • Article 3 of the order makes provision to allow a candidate standing in the name of two or more parties to have one of those party's emblems on the ballot paper.
  • Article 3 also enables a person who cannot sign his or her signature to use a mark in place of any signature required at the nomination stage.
  • Article 4 requires individuals to give reasons if they request their absent vote to be sent to a different address from that at which they are registered.

The vote technically approved the following motion:

This was a deferred division; as when when the motion was first put to the Commons on the 17th of November 2010 it was contested (ie. some MPs shouted "No") and it was after latest time set at which the Commons standing orders allows divisions to be held on such motions. This time beyond which most divisions cannot take place is called "moment for interruption" and is defined in Standing Order 9(3)[3] as: "ten o’clock on Mondays and Tuesdays, at seven o’clock on Wednesdays and at six o’clock on Thursdays". The standing order describing the procedures for deferred divisions is Standing Order No. 41A[3]. The division took place on the 24th of November 2010.

This division was preceded by a division on the Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010, another piece of secondary legislation which updated the rules for local elections in Northern Ireland.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Alliance1 00100.0%
Con275 0089.9%
DUP5 0062.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent1 00100.0%
Lab6 214085.6%
LDem50 0087.7%
SDLP0 1033.3%
Total:338 216087.4%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Andy BurnhamLeighLab (minister)aye
Ann ClwydCynon ValleyLab (minister)aye
Jim DobbinHeywood and MiddletonLabaye
David HeyesAshton-under-LyneLab (minister)aye
Alan JohnsonKingston upon Hull West and HessleLab (minister)aye
Alan MealeMansfieldLabaye

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