A WEST Belfast councillor has called on voters to participate in the public consultation on the proposed electoral boundary changes.
The existing constituency of Belfast West has an electorate of 65,761, which is below the statutory range set by the Boundary Commission. The proposed constituency of Belfast West has an electorate of 71,921, and is designated as a borough constituency.
Under the proposals, the council wards of Derriaghy, Dunmurry, Falls, Shankill and Woodvale will all become part of West Belfast while the wards of Blackstaff and Central will form part of the new Belfast South and Mid Down constituency, Forth River would form part of Belfast North and Stoneyford would fall under the South Antrim constituency.
Cllr Ronan McLaughlin described the report as a “fairly complex consultation”.
“We got the initial proposals last week and we will need to thrash them out more," he said. "On the face of it you have what is known as the Derriaghy council ward along with the rest of Dunmurry, Shankill and Woodvale coming into West Belfast with Forth River going to North Belfast.
“What is unique about this consultation is that previously when we looked at Assembly and Westminster elections we used what is known as the 1993 wards. This consultation is now using the 2012 council wards which have only been used for two elections so the data is limited.
“We all knew that we would have to bring in additional wards because every constituency has to have between 69,000 and 77,000 eligible voters whereas West Belfast had roughly 66,000.
“We are pleased that this time they haven’t used Rule 7. Rule 7 is unique to the North and isn’t in place in England, Scotland or Wales and it lets the Boundary Commission go beyond the limits imposed by parliament in terms of the numbers in constituencies.
“That’s what happened at the second stage of the previous Boundary Commission and the Tories nullified it although in the North it was quashed by the High Court because the right process wasn’t followed.”
Under these proposals, there is the potential for a unionist MLA to be elected to the Assembly for the West Belfast constituency for the first time since the DUP’s Diane Dodds lost her seat in 2007.
“These proposals will probably be passed in the House of Commons in 2024 but they won’t be used here until 2026. We have seen a lot of demographic changes so it is too early to quantify whether that would lead to a unionist gaining a seat,” said Cllr McLaughlin.
“The proposals are out to consultation which will end in December. We are calling on any community groups, interested parties and ordinary constituents to have a look at the proposals because it is fairly important for the running of future elecitons.
“As a party we will be submitting our own response but there is going to be various public hearings with Boundary Commissioners in each constituency.
“There will then be a further two consultation stages before the final report is published.”
