Open and transparent voting in the Parliamentary Assembly
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 17 November 2006 (see Doc. 11076, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities,
rapporteur: Mr Cebeci).
- Thesaurus
1. In a democracy,
which is fundamentally based on public debate and discussion, the
accountability of parliamentarians is an essential requirement and
one of its basic features. Democracy means that parliamentarians
must answer for their actions to the institution they serve and
to which they are accountable, although they are above all answerable
to their electorates. Consequently, information on their activities
and actions must be effectively available to the public.
2. The general public, and more particularly the electorate,
the media and various lobbies, are expressing a definite and growing
interest in ascertaining the opinions voiced by representatives
on specific crucial issues and how they have voted on them. This
holds not only for the national level but also for international parliamentary
institutions. The publication of votes and the individual parliamentarian’s
explanation of his or her vote correspond to this need for transparency,
which the development of electronic facilities and the Internet
are helping to meet.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly considers that it is important
to respond to the public demand for greater transparency in the
decisions taken by the Assembly. Making votes public means making
known not only the actual results but also the manner in which individual
members have voted, and this is a vital part of such transparency.
4. The Assembly takes note of the Bureau’s decision at its meeting
on 6 September 2006, which was a first step in the right direction,
to allow the names of members voting in the Assembly to be made
public via the Assembly website from the October 2006 part-session
onwards.
5. The Assembly considers that it is important to have a clear,
precise rule, understood by all, applying to all members in a standard
manner. Therefore, the Assembly feels that it is necessary:
5.1 to publish numerical results
of votes on texts for adoption in the minutes of proceedings of
the sitting;
5.2 to publish in electronic form on the Assembly website
the results of all voting, whether on texts for adoption, amendments,
procedural motions, etc., stating the names of voters and the manner
in which they voted.
6. Consequently, the Assembly decides to amend the Rules of Procedure
of the Assembly as follows:
6.1 to
replace Article 39.4 with the following text:
“Only affirmative and negative votes shall count in calculating
the number of votes cast. The President shall declare the voting
closed and announce the result, which may not subsequently be modified.
In case of an electronic vote, the numerical result shall be displayed
publicly in the Chamber; the numerical results of votes on draft
resolutions, recommendations and opinions to the Committee of Ministers
shall also be recorded in the minutes of proceedings of the sitting.”
6.2 to insert the following new paragraph after Article 39.4:
“Where the vote takes place by
means of the electronic voting system, members’ individual votes shall
be made public.”
6.3 to replace Article 39.5 with the following text:
“Voting by roll call can only be
requested if the electronic system cannot be used for technical reasons.
It will be taken if at least one sixth of the Representatives of
the Assembly authorised to vote, belonging to at least five national
delegations, so request.1
1. The number of Representatives of the Assembly authorised
to vote shall correspond to the number of seats allocated to each
of the member states under Article 26 of the Statute of the Council
of Europe, and to which appointments were made in accordance with
Article 25 of the Statute and Rules 6 to 11 of the Assembly’s Rules
of Procedure, excluding Representatives who have been deprived of
their voting rights in the Assembly or whose voting rights have
been suspended under Rule 7.3, 8.5 or 9.4. If the number of Representatives
authorised to vote is not divisible by six, the number obtained
as a result of the division is rounded down.”
6.4 to replace Article 39.7 with the following text:
“Voting by roll call shall proceed
in the alphabetical order of the Representatives’ names. Voting shall
be by word of mouth and shall be expressed by ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘abstention’
only. The President shall ask whether all members have been called
before declaring voting closed and announcing the result. The votes
are recorded in the minutes of proceedings of the sitting in the
alphabetical order of the Representatives’ names.”
7. The Assembly decides that the new provisions will come into
force at the opening of the January 2007 part-session.
