Legislative Council elections will no longer have a secret ballot.

New rules for procedures in Legislative Council elections were approved on Tuesday - but not before an amendment to the Standing Orders Committee recommendations that means, in future, we will see how MHKs vote.

The original recommendations retained the secret ballot element to the procedure in which MLCs are elected by the House of Keys.

However, there was unanimous support for an amendment tabled by Clare Bettison (Douglas East) to ensure that future votes will be in public.

During a debate on the changes, watched from the gallery by President of Tynwald Steve Rodan and MLC Tim Crookall, Ms Bettison was critical of the secret vote.

’It is crucial we maintain our integrity through the election procedure and we must be able to justify our decisions to our electorate,’ she said.

Keeping the secret vote perpetuated a perception of deals being struck behind the scenes, she said.

Seconding the amendment, Ann Corlett (Douglas Central) said: ’The farce that ensues when the election of MLCs is undertaken detracts, certainly from a public perspective, from the role they are elected to perform.’

Many MHKS agreed they should be prepared to justify their decisions, rather than a private vote.

Bill Malarkey (Douglas South), however, sounded a note of caution that the secret ballot helped avoid awkward situations for MHKs who might find more than one candidate expected their vote.

Standing Orders Committee member David Ashford (Douglas North), who moved the report, said he had no objection to making the vote a public procedure.

Earlier, he acknowledged that the changes could themselves be subject to further alteration once the Lisvane report into the systems of Tynwald has been debated. Lisvane proposes a scrutiny-only role for MLCs and suggests a nominations committee, rather than MHKs being able to nominate people for a place in the upper chamber.

Another amendment was approved meaning that, before their names can be included in an election, a candidate to be MLC must have the support of two other MHKs, in addition to the proposer and seconder.

Other changes in the report include a provision for the Speaker to arrange a hustings-style meeting for all candidates to address MHKs, while the right for MHKs to make a nomination from the floor of the Keys has been removed.

Speaker Juan Watterson confirmed the election to replace Tony Wild, who resigned as an MLC earlier this year, will be on May 18 and the deadline for nominations is May 5.