Fixed Term Parliament

EDM number 141 in 2010-12, proposed by Pete Wishart on 02/06/2010.
Categorised under the topics of Elections, Parliament and Parliamentary procedure.

That this House welcomes the coalition Government's commitment to introduce fixed term parliaments; expresses concern that the date identified for the next general election, the first Thursday of May in 2015, is the same day as elections for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly; notes that, following an inquiry, the Scottish Parliament elections have already been de-coupled from local government elections because of the confusion caused for voters of multiple elections using different voting systems on the same day; further notes the Liberal Democrat policy paper agreed at the party's 2007 autumn conference, For the People, By the People, which states that `Liberal Democrats have long argued that parliaments should last for a fixed term of four years'; and calls on the Government to bring forward legislation for fixed term parliaments of four years in order to avoid a situation where voters will be confronted with three different ballot papers each using different voting systems.

This motion has been signed by a total of 5 MPs.