Government of Wales Bill

moved Amendment No. 6:"Page 5, line 19, at end insert—" ““(8) In the event of a candidate’s death, the returning officer shall make arrangements for the election in that constituency or Assembly electoral region to be held not more than 28 days after the death of that candidate. (9)   Subsection (8) does not apply if the original date of the election is more than 28 days after the date of the death of the candidate.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, in the event of the death of a candidate at constituency level the whole regional list is suspended because you cannot total up the votes until you know which candidates have succeeded in each of the constituencies in that region. If the list is not complete in a region, the composition of the Assembly itself will not be known. We have to decide how we are going to fill that constituency vacancy. A candidate has died therefore the election is postponed. This happened in England during the previous election, when there was a delay of some weeks before the vacancy, which I believe was in Staffordshire, was filled. We consulted electoral officers to determine how quickly such a vacancy could be filled. It was suggested that you really needed 35 days to nominate a new candidate, print the ballot papers and distribute them, especially to postal voters, before polling day. It was suggested that 35 days would be the ideal. Of course, 35 days is 35 days in limbo for the region and possibly for the Assembly, so we are trying to take one week off those 35 days and make it 28 days. I think possibly it would work, and from the death of a candidate to the election all the procedures could be filled in 28 days. That is the reason for the amendment and for the period that we have specified in the amendment. I beg to move.