The Green Party (Comhaontas Glas) has adopted the matrix vote as part of its policy for the on-going review of the Belfast Agreement.
The matrix vote is the ideal way for the Assembly to elect its power-sharing Executive. The system means that all 108 MLAs can vote on an equal basis. Furthermore, it is proportional. And yet the whole thing works without any designations or even party labels. Perfect! See our web-page for details.
In July 2002, the two parties to the civil war in Sudan - the Sudanese peopl's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Khartoum Government - signed the "Machakos Protocol". This Agreement will give South Sudan the right to self-determination, i.e., a referendum, a two-option ballot on secession, yes-or-no.
Six months later, there's civil war in Darfur, this time between the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) on the one hand and, on the other, the Khartoum Government (and its Janjaweed).
Yet again, it seems, as in Yugoslavia, as in Indonesia, a referendum or the prospect of a referendum starts a war! Yet again, western diplomats appear to be incapable of suggesting anything better than a simple, divisive, majority vote.