11 October 1993

Doc. 6954

1403-7/10/93-1-E

REPORT

on the procedure for roll-call votes

(Rule 35 of the Rules of Procedure)

(Rapporteur: Sir Anthony DURANT,

United Kingdom, European Democratic Group)

I. Draft resolution

1.       The Assembly considers that the provisions regarding the procedure for roll-call votes should be completed and in particular specify that once a member has voted he may not change his vote.

2.       It therefore decides to amend Rule 35 of the Rules of Procedure as follows:

"Rule 35

Methods of voting

Present text

1 to 3

4.       Voting by roll-call shall commence five minutes after warning-bells have been rung. The roll shall be called in alphabetical order, beginning with the name of a Representative drawn by lot. Voting shall be by word of mouth and shall be expressed by "Yes", "No" or "abstain". Only affirmative and negative votes shall count in calculating the number of votes cast. The President shall be responsible for the counting of votes and shall announce the result. The votes shall be recorded in the Minutes of Proceedings of the Sitting in the alphabetical order of Representatives' names.

5.       In the case of appointments, voting shall take place by secret ballot. Only those ballot papers bearing the names of persons who have been duly entered as candidates before the opening of the first ballot shall be taken into account for the purpose of calculating the number of votes cast.

New text

1 to 3 (unchanged)

4.       Voting by roll-call shall commence five minutes after warning-bells have been rung. The roll shall be called in alphabetical order, beginning with the name of a Representative drawn by lot. Voting shall be by word of mouth and shall be expressed by "Yes", "No" or "abstain". When the final name on the list has been called, the President shall ask if any other member has still to be called, and when any such vote has been recorded the President shall announce that the vote is closed.

      Once he has voted, a member may not change his vote.

5.       Only affirmative and negative votes shall count in calculating the number of votes cast. The President shall be responsible for the counting of votes and shall announce the result, which may not subsequently be modified. The votes shall be recorded in the Minutes of Proceedings of the Sitting in the alphabetical order of Representatives' names.

6.       During the voting nobody may be called to speak.

7.       Only those Representatives, or their authorised Substitutes who have signed the register of attendance for them for a specific Sitting, shall be entitled to vote.

8.       In the case of appointments, voting shall take place by secret ballot. Only those ballot papers bearing the names of persons who have been duly entered as candidates before the opening of the first ballot shall be taken into account for the purpose of calculating the number of votes cast.

II. Explanatory memorandum

by Sir Anthony DURANT

A.       The problem

1.       During the Assembly's debate on "equality between women and men: the right to free choice of maternity" on 10 May 1993 a vote was taken by roll-call. Before the result of the vote was announced, Mr Malachowski came to the Tribune. He had voted "yes", imagining that a roll-call vote began with a literal roll-call to determine who was present. He had in fact intended to vote "no", against the adoption of the draft text. The Vice-President in the Chair accepted the change and announced his decision to the Assembly before the result of the vote was given. On a point of order Mr Schieder questioned whether Representatives should be able to change their votes. Other members also raised points of order.

2.       At the end of this discussion Lord Finsberg said that there was nothing in the Rules to say whether someone may or may not change her/his vote. Therefore discretion was given to the occupant of the Chair. Lord Finsberg proposed to ask the Committee on Rules of Procedure to ensure that "such a thing cannot happen again".

B.       Solution

a.       Current procedure in the Assembly

3.       Under Rule 35 (4) "voting by roll-call shall commence five minutes after warning-bells have been rung. The roll shall be called in alphabetical order, beginning with the name of a Representative drawn by lot. Voting shall be by word of mouth and shall be expressed by "Yes" or "No" or "abstain". Only affirmative and negative votes shall count in calculating the number of votes cast. The President shall be responsible for the counting of votes and shall announce the result". The manual "The Parliamentary Assembly — Procedure and Practice" (1990 edition, p. 156) adds that once the result of a vote has been announced by the President, the Assembly has taken a decision, and the result cannot subsequently be modified.

b.       General remarks

4.       With the exception of the Rules of the Second Chamber of the Netherlands' Parliament, the Rules of the other lower chambers of the parliaments of the European Community (including the European Parliament), of Austria, Liechtenstein and Norway, say nothing about whether a member may change his vote during a roll-call.1 According to Rule 83 of the Rules of Procedure of the Second Chamber of the Netherlands' Parliament a member who made an error when casting his vote, may record this error before the following member has voted. She/he may also announce her/his error at the end of the vote but this has no effect on the result.

5.       In the parliaments where an electronic voting system is operating members may always change their vote before the voting is closed.

c.       Proposals

6.       The conditions in the Assembly's hemicycle, with members coming in and out do not facilitate roll-calls. Before opening a roll-call the occupant of the Chair could therefore invite members to maintain discipline and to avoid entering or leaving the hemicycle during the vote. This would however not be mandatory and not mean that physical barriers be installed at the various entrances, or that doorkeepers would restrain members from entering or leaving. Only such measures and a simultaneous locking of all doors would avoid immediate challenge if there was a formal obligation for members not to come in and out during roll-calls.

7.       It would be useful to specify in Rule 35 (4) that when the final name on the list of representatives has been called, the President shall ask if any other member has still to be called. After such vote has been recorded, the President shall announce that the vote is closed.

8.       Once a member has voted, he/she should not be able to change his vote. Obviously, he/she may, by way of an explanation of vote (Rule 28 (4)) indicate any possible error in his/her vote, or ask the occupant of the Chair to inform the Assembly of such error at a later stage (see for example verbatim report of the WEU Assembly, 1977 p. 136). But this would not have any effect for the result announced.

9.       One of the Assembly's principles is that once the result of a vote has been announced by the President, the Assembly has taken a decision and the result cannot subsequently be modified. This should be specified in Rule 35.

10.       The review of Rule 35 offers an opportunity to make its wording more precise,

that is to say, during the voting nobody may be called to speak.2 To avoid that any points of order are raised directly with the Chair during the vote, it is understood that such points may be raised after the calling of names (and therefore after the voting) but before the announcement of the result.

11.       Finally the Committee on Rules of Procedure considered that it would be useful to specify in a new paragraph 7 that only those Representatives or their authorised Substitutes who have signed for them the register of attendance (Rules 39 and 25 of the Rules of Procedure) for a particular Sitting shall be entitled to vote.

C.       Final remark

12.       The committee proposes that these changes should enter into force immediately after the adoption of the draft resolution, which will be presented to the Standing Committee on 4 November 1993.

      Reporting committee: Committee on Rules of Procedure.

      Budgetary implications for the Assembly: none.

      Reference to committee: Assembly decision of 10 May 1993.

      Draft resolution adopted by the committee on 3 September 1993.

      Members of the committee: Sir Anthony Durant (Chairman), MM. Dimmer, Kozlowski (Vice-Chairmen), Mrs Aguiar, MM. Alloncle, Gudmundur Bjarnason, Borg, Cummings, Lord Finsberg, MM. Fiorini, Franck, Galanos (Alternate: Hadjidemetriou), Gjellerod, Gregory, Gül, Gundersen, Junghanns, Karcsay, Laakso, Leccese, Marten, Masson, Mignon, Moya, Neumann, de Paoli, Pukl, Rokofyllos, Schieder, Schiesser, Mrs Soutendijk-van Appeldoorn (Alternate: Tummers), MM. Stoilov, Thissen, Vinci.

      N.B. The names of those members who took part in the vote are printed in italics.

      Secretary to the committee: Mr Heinrich.

1 ¹For more details see the report presented by Mr Bradshaw to the Association of Secretaries General of Parliament, on the methods of voting. It was published in "Constitutional and Parliamentary Information", No. 132 (1982), pp. 179 to 225, paragraphs 4.6 to 4.8

2 ¹This could also apply to other methods of voting.