DUP Minister suppressing democracy - Allister
13 June 2008
Traditional Unionist Leader Jim Allister MEP has launched a blistering attack on the declaration by the new DUP Minister at DOE, Sammy Wilson, that he intends to bring forward legislation to ban council by-elections. This week Minister Wilson told Stormont Live on Tuesday that he hoped to bring through legislation which would lead to mandatory co-option. Asked if he hoped to have the legislation in place before he would resign his own seat on Belfast City Council Mr Wilson replied: “I hope so”.
Seeing the move as a direct DUP response to its humiliation in the Dromore by-election, Jim Allister challenged both the legality and politics of such a move.
In a statement the TUV Leader said:-
“Being itself a perversion of democracy, built on mandatory coalition – whereby the electorate are denied the right to ever vote a party out of office – it should perhaps be no surprise that the Executive is lurching towards further suppression of democracy. Hence the monstrous and undemocratic proposal of DOE Minister Wilson to outlaw Council by-elections.
In Zimbabwe they rig elections; here, the Minister wants to ban them!
The suggestion that mandatory coalition should be matched by mandatory co-option in local government is a further frontal attack on basic democratic rights. It is motivated, of course, by the self-serving interest of never again having to face a Dromore humiliation. I have no doubt its target is the TUV, lest we again expose the DUP’s dwindling electoral support. Moreover, I would not be surprised, when the DUP legislation appears, if it attempts to bestow the co-option power on the party to which the retiring councillor belonged at the date of his/her election – this, patently, would be an overt political attempt to stymie TUV and something which I believe would be unlawful under Section 76 of the NI Act 1998 and infringe equality rights of equal opportunity in respect of a particular political opinion.
I believe this proposal for mandatory co-option conflicts fundamentally with basic political and human rights. Article 25 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: “Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity…..to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives.”
Thus, I will be inviting the Human Rights Commission to take an interest in any such proposal, pursuant to its powers under Article 69(4) of the NI Act, 1998 and challenging the right of the Assembly to remove a right to election, given that “elections” are an “excepted matter”, reserved to Westminster under the NI Act 1998 – of course, the Secretary of State might well co-operate with the Assembly in abrogating democratic rights.”
