Gibraltar House of Assembly

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Gibraltar

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Gibraltar

Governor Sir Robert Fulton Chief Minister Peter Caruana Opposition Leader Joe Bossano House of Assembly Political parties Elections: 2007 2006 referendum Politicians Disputed status of Gibraltar See also Politics of Spain Politics of the U.K.

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The Gibraltar House of Assembly was the legislature of the British territory of Gibraltar between 1969 and 2006. It has since been superceded by the Gibraltar Parliament.

This unicameral body cinsisted of fifteen members elected by vote of the Gibraltarian people and two appointed members, including the Attorney-General. The body was mandated by Gibraltar's 1969 constitution. The term "House of Assembly" has been commonly used for the legislatures of British territories that are less than fully sovereign. Its replacement institution being called a parliament reflects the increased autonomy that Gibraltar has gained with its new constitution.

Under the election system, each voter was allowed to vote for eight members of the Assembly. Due to the small area of Gibraltar and its territorial continuity, precincts served only as polling places, not political units and there are no electoral districts served by the members, who were instead elected "at large" to serve the territory as a whole.

The system lent itself to block voting -- each of the parties or electoral coalitions tended to nomimate a slate of eight candidates and encourage its supporters to vote for all of them. In most cases, the winning party would have all eight of its nominees elected, with the other seven elected members coming from the second-place party.

The House of Assembly sat in a building overlooking Main Street and John Mackintosh Square. It was constructed in 1817 and previously served as the Exchange and Commercial Library. The House of Assembly was opened on 28th August 1969 by the then Governor Admiral Varyl Begg ^[1]

[edit] Latest election

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 28 November 2003 Gibraltar House of Assembly election results

Parties	Votes	%	Seats
Gibraltar Social Democrats		51.5	8
Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party		39.7	5
Gibraltar Liberal Party			2
Gibraltar Labour Party		8.3	-
Ex-officio members (retired under new constitution)			2
Total (turnout %)			17
Source: Parties and elections

[edit] See also

Gibraltar_constitutional_referendum,_2006.

[edit] External links

• Draft government legislation replacing references to "House of Assembly" with "Gibraltar Parliament"
• Gibraltar Parliament Homepage (out of date)