Alliance to keep trying to change vote system

The Alliance party has vowed to continue its efforts to achieve a reform of the Assembly's voting procedures, after a review …

The Alliance party has vowed to continue its efforts to achieve a reform of the Assembly's voting procedures, after a review concluded the current arrangements would not be changed.

The non-aligned Alliance party had temporarily re-designated three of its five MLAs as "unionist" to secure the re-election of Mr David Trimble as First Minister in November. In exchange, the party insisted on a review of the voting procedures which stipulate that members need to designate themselves as "unionist" or "nationalist" in cross-community votes.

The outcome of the review was presented by the British minister in charge, Mr Des Browne.

The Alliance leader, Mr David Ford said: "There was a real onus on those who benefited most from the successful re-election [of Mr Trimble] - the UUP and SDLP - to propose meaningful reforms to ensure that a similar crisis is avoided when we next have Assembly elections. Instead, the UUP, SDLP and Sinn Féin not only failed to come with their own proposals, but dismissed both recommended changes and subsequent compromises from Alliance, the Women's Coalition and PUP. Alliance endorsed redesignation as a one-off act. But we have made it clear that Alliance cannot repeat this move to save those who refuse to save themselves."