Byelections 'are an anachronism'

Byelections are an anachronism and should be replaced with the system used in Malta where the votes of the former member are distributed to voters' next preference, an Oireachtas committee heard.

Prof David Farrell, from the school of politics and international relations at University College Dublin, told the committee on the constitution the Maltese "count back" procedure should replace byelections.

“Byelections are an anachronism in a proportional system . . . there’s no reason for byelections here,” Prof Farrell said.

He said party registration laws should be amended to require registered parties to nominate a national minimum number of women candidates in Dáil elections.

Dr Gary Murphy, associate professor of government at Dublin City University, said byelections were “worth sticking with”. However, he said they had become “mini-referendums” on governments as they seemed to have an “inbuilt bias” against the government of the day.

“The fear of losing a seat at a by-election gives governments of all hues an incentive to leave a seat vacant for a long time, as in the case of Donegal South West at the moment,” he said.

“This essentially disenfranchises the electorate of Donegal South West and to be frank this is unacceptable practice.”

Hermann Schiavone from Malta, a PhD student at the University of Manchester, explained the Maltese electoral system. Malta is the only other country that uses the proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote (PR-STV) system.