'End ethnocracy, bring back democracy'

12.00.00am GMT Mon 24th Nov 2003

East Antrim Assembly candidate Stewart Dickson has said that Alliance will be working to 'end the ethnocracy and bring back democracy' in the Comprehensive Review of the Agreement.

Mr Dickson stated: "Nationalists and unionists have fought themselves to a standstill. The ability of the two traditional tribes to produce stalemate rather than deliver progress is legendary, but that is not good enough for a public hungry for bread and butter issues to be given top priority.

"Our agenda is to get away from the ethnocratic system of designations that reduces important Assembly debates to sectarian headcounts. But we also want to make ministers more accountable, a voting system that treats everyone equally and to cut down on bureaucracy."

Mr Dickson added that the d'Hondt system of appointing positions on the Executive and Committee Chairs was a poor form of proportionality prone to major distortions - as nationalists, who strongly support the system, might find out after the election.

"D'Hondt is flawed. The greater the number of parties involved, the more likely that distortions will occur. The current 50:50 split between Unionists and Nationalists on the Executive is a pure fluke, but many people believe it was designed like that. Bizarrely, it is likely that after the next election, Unionists will have a 6:4 advantage, despite Nationalism increasing its number of votes and seats.

"Alliance would replace the d'Hondt system for allocating positions with a fairer and more effective system, where such a mechanism is required. One possibility would be via an STV election by the MLAs."