Proposed Constitutional Amendment

1. Should your committee?s recommendations be adopted, it is proposed that the following amendments be brought to the Constitution?

2. By adding a new paragraph 4A after the existing paragraph 4 as follows -

4A. Allocation of 30 additional seats

(1) In order to ensure fair and adequate representation of political parties, there shall be 30 seats in the Assembly, additional to the 62 seats for members representing constituencies, which shall be allocated in accordance with this paragraph and in such manner as may be prescribed.

(2) A political party which has been registered under paragraph 2(1) and has at least twelve candidates who have been nominated for election, may, within such time and in such manner as may be prescribed, register with the Electoral Supervisory Commission, a list (hereinafter referred to as the ?party list?) of not more than 30 candidates which that party nominates for election under this paragraph.

(3) A party list shall be in such form as may be prescribed and?

(a) shall not include the name of a person who is not qualified to be a member under this Constitution;

(b) shall indicate the order of precedence of each of the candidates appearing thereon ;

(c) shall in respect of each candidate appearing thereon, indicate his or her name, address, gender and the community to which he or she belongs ;

(d) shall, in respect of the first twelve candidates appearing thereon, contain six candidates of the female sex and six candidates of the male sex;

(e) except for those persons designated as leaders of parties under paragraph 2(3), shall not include a person who is already a candidate for election;

(f) shall be accompanied by a certificate in such form as may be prescribed and signed in the presence of two registered electors by each candidate appearing on the party list certifying that he accepts to be nominated as candidate ;

(g) shall, where the Commission is satisfied that it complies with this paragraph and within such time as may be prescribed, be registered by the Electoral Supervisory Commission;

(h) shall, upon registration, be published in such manner as may be prescribed.

(4) At a general election, every elector shall, in addition to the votes cast under paragraph 1(3), cast one additional vote on a separate ballot (hereinafter referred to as the ?party ballot paper?) which shall be in such form as the Electoral Supervisory Commission may prescribe and which shall contain a list, in alphabetical order, of parties having submitted a party list together with the symbol allotted to such party. The vote shall be taken in the same manner as specified in paragraph 1(3) except that no vote cast by an elector on a party ballot paper shall be counted unless he casts one valid vote for one party appearing on the party ballot paper.

(5) Paragraph 3 shall apply in respect of every candidate whose name appears on the party list.

(6) As soon as is practicable after all the returns have been made of persons elected at a general election as members to represent constituencies, the Electoral Supervisory Commission shall allocate the 30 additional seats as follows ?

(a) The Electoral Supervisory Commission shall first count the total number of votes cast on the party ballot papers in respect of each party registered under subparagraph (2)(hereinafter referred to as the ?total party votes?).

(b) A party having polled, in the aggregate less than ten percent of the total votes validly cast on the party ballot papers, shall be disregarded for the purpose of this paragraph.

(c) With regard to a party having obtained ten percent or more of the votes validly cast on the party ballot papers, its total party votes shall be divided by the aggregate of one plus the number of candidates of the party who have been returned under paragraph (1) to represent constituencies, the result being referred to as the ?PR figure? .

(d) The party obtaining the highest PR figure shall be allocated the first additional seat.

(e) The second and subsequent additional seats shall be allocated to the party with the highest PR figure after any recalculation required by subparagraphs (f) and (g) has been carried out.

(f) In allocating the second seat, the PR figure of the party to whom a seat has been allocated under subparagraph (d) shall be recalculated by dividing that party?s total party votes by the aggregate of one plus the previous aggregate figure used to calculate the PR figure of that party under paragraph (c).

(g) In allocating the third and the subsequent seats, there shall be a recalculation of the PR figure for the party to whom the previous seat was allocated and, on each recalculation, that party?s total party votes shall be divided by the aggregate of one plus the previous aggregate figure used to calculate its previous PR figure.

(h) Seats allocated to any party under this subparagraph shall be filled by the persons on the party list of that party in the order of precedence in which they appear on the list.

(i) Once a party list has been exhausted by the return of persons included on it, the party shall be disregarded.

(j) Where the highest PR figure is that of two or more parties, these parties shall each be allocated one additional seat.

(k) Where the application of subsubparagraph (j) would result in the allocation of more than the maximum of 30 seats, the PR figure shall be recalculated after adding one to the number of the total party votes for each party.

(l) Where after a recalculation of the highest PR figure under subsubparagraph (k) is still that of 2 or more parties, the Electoral Commissioner shall decide between them by drawing of lots.

(m) Where at any time before the next dissolution of Parliament one of the 30 seats falls vacant, the seat shall as soon as is reasonably practicable after the occurrence of the vacancy be allocated by the Electoral Supervisory Commission to the candidate whose name appears next in order of precedence on the party list of the party to whom the person to whom the seat was allocated at the last general election belonged.

(n) Where the party list referred to in subparagraph (n) has been exhausted, no seat shall be allocated to fill the vacancy.

2. In paragraph 5(1) ?

(a) by deleting the figure ?62? and replacing it by the figure ?92? ; and

(b) by adding the words ?and for members returned under paragraph 4A? after the word ?constituencies?.

So that paragraph 5(1) reads as follows ?

(1) In order to ensure a fair and adequate representation of each community, there shall be 8 seats in the Assembly, additional to the 92 seats for members representing constituencies and for members returned under paragraph 4A, which shall so far as is possible be allocated to persons belonging to parties who have stood as candidates for election. As members at the general election but have not been returned as members to represent constituencies.

3. In paragraph 5(2 ) by adding the words ?and for members returned under paragraph 4A? after the word ?constituencies?.

So that paragraph 5(2) reads as follows ?

(2) As soon as is practicable after all the returns have been made of persons elected at any general election as members to represent constituencies and of persons elected under paragraph 4A, the 8 additional seats shall be allocated in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph by the Electoral Supervisory Commission which shall so far as is possible make a separate determination in respect of each seat to ascertain the appropriate unreturned candidate (if any) to fill that seat.

The proposal for a parallel formula

1. THERE shall be additional number of 30 seats, which shall be allocated under the Proportionately Elected Members System.

2. The 30 seats provided for under the proportionately elected members system shall be allocated after the allocation of the 8 additional seats, or such lesser number of additional seats as is possible depending on the results of a general election, provided for in the Constitution under Best Loser System.

3. The minimum level of support which a political party needs to gain to qualify for representation under the proportionately Elected Members System shall be not less than 10% of the total valid votes cast.

?General election? means a general election referred to in paragraph 1 (2) of the First Schedule of the Constitution.

?Political party? means: (a) political party which has nominated a candidate in a general election; (b)a party alliance, where 2 or more political parties have been registered as such under paragraph 2(1) of the Constitution.

?Relevant number? means the number of proportionately elected members referred to under the first paragraph above.

?Remainder?, in relation to a political party, means any remainder which results when determining under paragraph 2(1) the number of proportionately elected members a political party may be entitled to.

4. A political party which has nominated a candidate in a general election; shall be entitled to the allocation of a number of proportionately elected members which shall be determined according to the formula set out below.

(1) The following formula shall apply for the purpose of determining the number of proportionately elected members to which a political party qualified for representation shall be entitled to:

Where:

A = number of proportionately elected members a political party shall be entitled to;

B = relevant number;

C = total number of valid votes cast in favour of the candidates nominated by a political party at a general election; and

D = total number of valid votes cast at the election.

(2) Where under subparagraph (1), A is a fraction of one or consists of a whole number and a fraction of one, the fraction shall initially be disregarded but shall be treated as a remainder for the purposes of the application of subparagraph (3).

(3) Where on the application of the formula under subparagraph (1) the total number of proportionately elected members falls short of the relevant number, the number of proportionately elected members represented by the shortfall shall be allocated as follows ?

(a) Any political party with the highest remainder shall first be entitled to representation by a member, the party with the second highest remainder shall next be entitled in turn to a member, and so on.

(b) Where the shortfall is still not eliminated, the exercise shall be repeated, starting again with the party with the highest remainder until the shortfall is eliminated.

5. The Electoral Commissioner shall determine:

(a) the political parties that shall be entitled to any proportionately elected member of the National Assembly; and

(b) the number of proportionately elected members.

6. The proportionately elected members to which each political party is entitled to shall be chosen among the most successful unreturned candidates, irrespective of community, in accordance with the First Schedule of the Constitution.

7. In the event that any of the seats to which the political party is entitled to still remains unfilled for lack of unreturned Candidates, then those seats shall be allocated to any of the members from a party list of 30 names in order of priority submitted to the Electoral Commissioner, on the nomination day, by the political party to which he belongs.