The June sitting of Tynwald will have an historic opportunity to redraw the Island’s political map and end decades of inequality amongst voters in elections to the House of Keys.
 
Members will be asked to agree a new pattern of twelve equal constituencies – each represented by two MHKs and with an average population of around 7,000 – to replace the traditional mixture of three, two and one-seat constituencies which has long been criticised as unfair and undemocratic.
 
The new constituencies, proposed in the third report of the Boundary Review Committee, are in line with previous Tynwald resolutions that there should be equality of representation, that the 24 Keys seats should be divided into twelve constituencies with two Members each, and that the population size of constituencies should not vary from the average by more than 15%.
 
The final proposals are mainly the same as those outlined in the Committee’s draft plan published for consultation in January this year, but there are changes in respect of Maughold and Onchan following discussions with local representatives.
 
The Committee recommends that Maughold should remain with Lonan and Laxey in the new East constituency, instead of becoming part of the North constituency.
 
It has also concluded that the Howstrake area, and not Birch Hill as originally proposed, should be the part of Onchan included in the neighbouring East constituency to achieve the recommended balance of population levels. Village landmarks such as St Peter’s Church and the Vicarage would be retained within Onchan Urban.
 
The Committee’s report comments: ‘The population of the whole of Onchan is 8846 and therefore it is clear that in the region of 2000 people in this area would have to be moved to another constituency to meet the equivalency principle.’
 
In her foreword to the report Committee chair Sally Bolton writes: ‘The determination by Tynwald of the fundamental principles that we should apply, not least those of equality of representation and equivalency of constituencies, set the Committee upon a path that has led to the recommendations contained herein.
 
‘We recognise that these proposals will not please everyone. They are made after adhering to the agreed principles and after trying to accommodate, as far as is possible within these principles, the inherent nature of our communities.’
 
The report concludes: ‘The Committee has been pleased to assist Tynwald in such an important democratic process and believes that the Island is now presented with a real opportunity to effect meaningful change.’
 
Tynwald will be asked to approve the new constituency boundaries set out in the report and to agree that the relevant legislation should be amended to allow their introduction in time for the next General Election in 2016.

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