Commentary on Sections Part 1: Voting system for parliamentary elections Section 8: Commencement or repeal of amending provisions
34.This section deals with the coming into force, or repeal, of the provisions in the Act that are referred to as the “alternative vote provisions”. The “alternative vote provisions” are section 9, Schedule 10 and Part 1 of Schedule 12; and the effect of these provisions would be to alter the voting system for parliamentary elections to the alternative vote system.
35.If there is a “yes” vote in the referendum (that is, more people vote yes than vote no) then the alternative vote provisions must be brought into force on the same day as the coming into force of an Order in Council giving effect to the Boundary Commissions' recommendations for altering the parliamentary constituencies made under the revised scheme in Part 2 of the Act.
36.If there is a “no” vote in the referendum, the alternative vote provisions must be repealed.
37.Subsection (3)(b) makes a saving provision. It provides that where an Order is made to bring the AV provisions into force the Order will not apply to any election which takes place before the first general election that is held after AV comes into force. The effect is that a general election, rather than a by-election, will be the first election to be held using AV.