Motion to Vary Rule 16(5) of the Rules of Procedure

To vary Rule 16(5) of the Rules of Procedure of the States of Deliberation and their Committees, for the purposes of the current meeting of the States only, to the extent necessary to permit the following:

The Presiding Officer shall allow Members, whether there are four or fewer candidates or the election is contested, to question the candidates before voting takes place;

Provided that:

1. the questions shall relate to areas of the policy included in the mandate of the Policy & Resources Committee;
2. no Member may ask more than one question, save that if before the expiration of the period prescribed in sub-paragraph vi there are no further questions, Members who have already asked a question may be permitted to ask further questions;
3. the questioner may not speak for more than 30 seconds;
4. each candidate shall be entitled to respond to each question, but no response shall exceed 1 minute;
5. candidates shall answer the first question in the order in which they are nominated and thereafter the order of answering the questions shall, after each question has been answered by the candidate, be rotated by moving the name of the candidate at the top of the list to the bottom of that list;
6. the session shall conclude at the expiration of the period calculated by multiplying 10 minutes by the number of candidates; and
7. no Member shall be entitled to speak other than in accordance with the provisions of this sub-paragraph.