House of Lords Act: Hereditary Peers Byelection, 22nd March 2005After the death of Lord Aberdare on 3rd January 2003, the vacant seat was filled at a byelection held on 22nd March 2005. As Lord Aberdare had been one of the 15 peers elected by the whole House as office-holders, the electorate was the whole House of Lords. This included the hereditary peers elected under the House of Lords Act 1999, but not including peers on leave of absence or those who had not taken the oath. All told, there were 687 people eligible to vote, of whom 352 cast votes; 4 ballot papers were spoilt. The election was conducted using the Alternative Vote system. Hereditary Peers who wished to stand for election had previously registered with the Clerk of the Parliaments, but had to confirm that they were interested in standing for this vacancy. There were 81 confirmed candidates, of whom 37 received no first preference votes at all. In a slight variant on the normal rules of Alternative Vote elections, candidates who had the lowest remaining total were eliminated in alphabetical order and so there were 42 stages; but for simplicity I have rolled all the eliminations of candidates who were tied in votes into a single stage.
|