Government of Wales Bill

moved Amendment No. 1:"Page 1, line 8, leave out subsection (2) and insert—" ““(   )   The Assembly is to consist of 80 members elected through the single transferable vote from multi-member constituencies.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendment No. 1 is grouped with Amendments Nos. 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 10. The purpose of the amendments is to install the single transferable vote system—voting in proportionality. The topic was discussed at some length in Committee. I do not intend to debate this at great length, although it would be quite wrong, on Report, not to draw attention to the importance of ending up with what we regard as the best system of election to the Welsh Assembly. We are particularly exercised by the importance of the fairness of the voting system and the proportionality in the electoral system. Amendment No. 1 covers the possibility, at any rate, of an 80-member Assembly, elected by the single transferable vote. Amendment No. 2 specifies that members would be elected in multi-member constituencies. Amendment No. 3 deals with the situation in which two votes would not be cast—as in the Bill at present—but just one vote cast preferentially. Amendment No. 4 is consequential on the above amendments. Amendment No. 7 leaves out Clause 8, which will be necessary to achieve the objective of an STV system to elect members to the Welsh Assembly. Amendment No. 8 removes Clause 9 and inserts a new clause that specifies that each vote will use the single transferable vote system, which indicates voters’ order of preference and eliminates prior choice. We shall come to that in Amendment No. 5, which we will debate after this group of amendments. Amendment No. 10 installs an 80-member Assembly elected by single transferable vote. These amendments eliminate the present additional member system of election to the Assembly and the system proposed by the Government as an alternative to the STV system recommended by the Richard commission, where the first-past-the-post system of election in constituencies and a regional top-up list apply as they do at the moment. Noble Lords will remember that we had a vote in Committee about whether candidates could stand in the same region as they stood in for a first-past-the-post election, which is the status quo. I think that was the only vote carried in Committee. This system overcomes the difficulties with the AMS system, whether carried out under the status quo or under the system proposed by the Government, because it means that there are not two classes of candidates. Everyone is voted to the National Assembly by the same system. There is no difference and no way to say, ““This Member was elected by a system that makes him a second-class Member””. Everyone has the equality of the same system. That is the benefit of the STV system. We debated the subject at considerable length in Committee, and I make no apologies for returning to it on Report. I beg to move.