PROPOSED changes to the Welsh electoral system represent an enormous shift of power from the people to the politicians, the Bishop of St Asaph, the Rt Revd Gregory Cameron, warns in an ad clerum issued last Friday.
The wide-ranging Senedd (Members and Elections) Bill was attributable to be debated this week at its second stage. It seeks to extend the dimensions of the Welsh Parliament to 96 members, all of whom should be resident in Wales and elected via closed-list proportional representation. If passed, it would come into force for the 2026 elections.
People would vote for a celebration, not a person — a facet of the Bill that Bishop Cameron describes as “bad news” for democracy and accountability. “It severs the link between local representation and individual Senedd members’ performance,” he writes to his clergy. “An individual who could also be loathed by the electorate can still be elected because they’re loved by the party. It promotes ‘company men’ (and ladies) over locally accountable politicians.”
It can be the politicians, not the people, who would resolve which personalities would work within the Welsh Parliament, the Bishop writes. “I can see why a government of any complexion would really like it because they’ll select a membership of party ‘yes’ people, reasonably than those personalities who command the boldness of their constituency.
“It was sometimes said that in certain parts of Wales, a selected party could nominate a donkey and that they’d still get elected — but my point is that they’d have been unwise to risk it. No longer — the bulk party in an election would get exactly those politicians who curried the favour of the party and never of the people.”
The Bishop reflects within the ad clerum that his selection for St Asaph in 2009 was as a person, “not someone chosen by particular Church party I used to be believed to represent” — as in “an Evangelical’ or “a Catholic”.
“We should have the option to eyeball our legislators and judge whether we trust a person and never a celebration,” he concludes. “It’s perfectly acceptable for a person to be chosen by a celebration and recommend as their candidate, but they know — for now — that they must select someone who can win the support of their constituency, and never some faceless party favourite.”
