Electoral Integrity — 22 Jun 2005 at 18:50

This division took place at the end of a Conservative opposition day debate on the electoral system, concentrating on postal voting and electoral registration. The motion which the Conservatives proposed was:

That this House believes that the Government should rule out future use of all-postal voting and that any pilot schemes should be subject to explicit parliamentary ratification; regrets the unwillingness of the Government to adopt in mainland Britain the tried and tested Northern Ireland system of individual voter registration; condemns the Government's constitutional changes which have undermined democratic accountability, such as the introduction of proportional representation; and further believes that urgent steps are needed to restore public confidence and integrity in the electoral system and to increase the accountability of government.

The government moved an amendment to change this motion to:

That this House believes that the General and local elections were safe and secure, and produced results that were fair and accurate; recognises that public confidence in the electoral process is paramount; and believes that the Government's constitutional changes have strengthened democratic accountability, bringing our institutions closer to the people.

The question which was before the House was whether to keep the original wording to the motion, and those voting Aye were therefore supporting the motion as it was originally proposed. Those voting No were opposing the motion although not necessarily supporting the amendment.

Debate in Parliament | Source |