Tynwald has voted against proposed constituency boundary changes that would have seen parts of Ramsey moved into Ayre and Michael.

The court also rejected an amendment to restore Onchan to its pre-2013 boundaries.

A report by the Electoral Commssion recommended that that the island’s system of 12 two-seat House of Keys should be retained.

It said each constituency should be of approximately equal size by population, with the maximum permitted departure from the average in any constituency remaining at 15%. But its proposed changes to the constituency boundaries, which it had deemed ‘necessary and appropriate’, that would have seen part of north Ramsey moved into Ayre and Michael, and part of Glenfaba and Peel move into Middle, did not win the support of Tynwald.

The outcome of the vote could signal a willingness by Tynwald in future to challenge the 12 two-seat model and restore the old mixture of one, two and three-seat constituencies.

Onchan MHK Rob Callister tabled an amendment calling for Onchan’s parliamentary boundaries to restored to how they were in before 2013, when parts of the village were hived off into Garff and a few residents were also placed in Douglas North.

He told the court that Onchan residents still feel disenfranchised as a result of the 2013 boundary change - and their ‘legitimate grievance’ had led to some refusing to vote in a general election.

 ‘What I find totally unacceptable is the fact that various properties in the heart of Onchan village continue to sit just outside their own constituency, their own community,’ he said.

Mr Callister called on the parish and village of Onchan to be brought back together and align the boundary with the local authority map to help preserve its integrity as a ‘single constituency, a single community’

And he said there was the ‘very strong’ evidence to justify Onchan becoming a three-seat constituency once more.

Fellow Onchan MHK Julie Edge suppored his amendment. ‘I completely agree - it’s broken up a community. And there is now an awful lot of people now choosing not to vote. ‘

Speaker Juan Watterson also backed Mr Callister’s amendment, saying Onchan should be ‘brought back together and treated as whole’.

Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper said he would not support moving a ‘few hundred residents into another constituency without their consent’.

He said: ‘My over-riding concerns is these individual people in my home town who will be moved into a predominately rural constituency. My concern is they will be disenfranchised.’

But Central Douglas MHK said: ‘We are not saying a constituency for the House of Keys is the same as a local authority boundary because the nightmare scenario is that if we go along with this “make Onchan great and keep Ramsey together again” we end up with representation that distorts democracy.’

The Electoral Commission had considered an option to move part of south Ramsey into Garff but ruled it out, saying it had long formed part of the historic town and the change would directly affect a larger number of people.

Its proposal for north Ramsey had nothing to do with the town Commissioners’ proposals to expand the local authority boundary into Lezayre and Garff, which went to public inquiry in January.

Chief Minister Alfred Cannan said he would vote for quality of representation over equality, which would ultimately challenge the make-up of two-seat constituencies. ‘I’m going to reject recommendations one, two and three for quality purposes,’ he said.

Mr Callister’s amendments were rejected by the 13 votes to 10 in the Keys and seven votes to one in the Legislative Council.

The first three of the Electoral Commission’s 13 recommendations were also rejected, the third one - which proposed the Peel and Ramsey boundary changes - unanimously.