Local Government Reform - Consultation on Policy Proposals

within the council and for its representative positions on external
bodies. The methods which the Department proposes should be
available are:
• the D’Hondt and Saint-Lague divisor systems which use a
formula for determining the order in which political parties will
make their selection of the position that they wish to hold; and
• the Single Transferrable Voting system, where each councillor
will vote for the individual that they wish to hold a position.
3.12. The D’Hondt system will be the default approach if the political
parties on a district council fail to agree on the system to be
adopted. The Department proposes to set out the precise method
of application of each the systems that will be available to ensure
consistency of approach across councils.
Question 5:
Do you support the proposal that a limited number of
methods for ensuring the sharing of positions on a council,
its committees, and external appointments should be made
available? Are the methods identified appropriate?
Question 6:
Should the D’Hondt system be specified as the default model,
for use in the absence of agreement?
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