No more by-elections?

| Readers 3

That would be the result of the recommendation in the consultation paper announced by NI Minister Paul Goggins, MP, to change the current ‘co-option by unanimous agreement’ method in Councils to one of filling casual vacancies by party nomination – as the NI Assembly now does. [Westminster excepted] Consultation paper here [pdf file]. Consultation period – 12 weeks [until 15th January 2010]. In addition, “In the event that DoE(NI) introduces a severance scheme [for councillors] well in advance of a May 2011 election”, the consultation paper proposes introducing a special provision to either “Allow the current co-option rules to apply but carry vacancies until the next election if any co-option fails” or “Carry all vacancies until the next election [2011]”. The new councillors’ severance scheme is currently in consultation mode itself.

Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

Recent posts

Dan McGinn

Taking The Gloves Off

Brendan Heading

Alliance : time to get off the fence ? 

Ciaran Ward

Telling people where to go in Northern Ireland (quite literally)…

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated. 

Give a monthly donation Give a one-off donation