By-election to upper house contested by 81 peers

Peers will face one of the longest ballot papers in British political history when 81 holders of hereditary titles stand for a vacancy in the House of Lords this month.

The list of nominations to replace the late Viscount of Oxfuird was published by the House of Lords yesterday. The names are those of some of the hereditary peers thrown out of the Lords in 1999. Reformers said the election was further evidence of the need for modernisation of the Lords. The reform stalled after MPs failed to back any option for change.

Candidates include the second Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, son of Field Marshall Montgomery, and Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, the president of the Conservative Monday Club, which was thrown out of the party in 2001. The list is dominated by Conservatives and crossbenchers, although two Labour and two Liberal Democrats will stand.

Peers will vote on 25 and 26 March to choose a member to replace Lord Oxfuird, who died in January and was one of the 15 office holders in the Lords who remained when all but 92 hereditary peers lost their seats. Peers will be able to put all 81 candidates in order of preference under the alternative vote system. The result will be announced on 27 March.

Lord Goodhart, a Liberal Democrat peer, said: "The whole by-election system is ludicrous, and this is particularly ridiculous. Peers will have a very long ballot paper. Obviously, a lot of the hereditaries rather enjoyed being members of the House and would like to come back."