SINN Féin Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney has stated that decisions regarding Assembly and local government elections should be transferred from Westminster to locally accountable politicians following the publishing of the initial report on proposed boundary changes by the Boundary Commission.
Uunder the proposals by the Commission, the name Londonderry could disappear.
The current constituency of East Londonderry will become part of Glenshane with Foyle representing Derry city.
Speaking about the Commission’s proposals, oday Raymond McCartney said:
“Clearly this is a substantial piece of work proposing significant changes and will require a detailed response.
“Sinn Féin do have concerns regarding the use of data from the December 2015 electoral register as their basis for drawing the new constituencies rather than census data which is standard international practice.
“There are further concerns regarding what impact a Westminster led Boundary Commission will have on Assembly representation with a possibility of a reduction of constituencies to sixteen or less.
“It is my view that we need to transfer powers on elections to the Assembly and Local Government into the hands of locally elected and accountable representatives and establish a boundary commission to deal exclusively with the Assembly constituencies – as Scotland has already done,” added the Foyle MLA.
