Voting in the Chambers
At the end of a debate all
Members present in the Chamber are required to vote on whether or not they are
in favour. The Presiding Officer is the only exception – he or she has no
vote at this stage.
Most decisions are made using an oral vote. The presiding officer ask
Members to indicate verbally whether they are in favour of the motion (‘those
in favour say aye’) or against the motion (‘those against say no’), allowing a
pause each time for Members to respond. Members all respond together saying Aye or
No, depending on their view. The presiding officer judges which is the
strongest response and states that either ‘the ayes have it’ or ‘the noes have
it’. If a Member wishes the matter to be
put to a recorded vote, he or she may request a division by calling ‘Divide’.
This must be done before the presiding officer repeats his or her judgment for
the second time.
Divide!
If a division is
successfully called in Tynwald Court or the House of Keys, an electronic
vote is taken. Each Member votes using the buttons found on the desk in front
of their seat. Once all Members have voted the Clerk electronically concludes
the vote and the result, which displays the vote of each Member, is shown on
a screen in the Chamber. The Presiding Officer then announces the
result of the division. In the Legislative Council a called vote is taken,
where each Member states whether he or she is voting for or against. The Clerk
of the Legislative Council records this information and the presiding
officer then announces the result of the division.
Aye or No?
After each sitting,
the results of electronic votes and whether motions were carried or lost are published in Hansard and Votes and Proceedings. You can also find out the results of votes using the Business Search and the Parliamentary Data pages.
Votes and Proceedings Hansard
Business Search Parliamentary Data.
Find out more about Voting.