2020 election starts to take shape

Friday 08 February 2019

Plans for the 2020 election are starting to be fleshed out with the States committee responsible for its success vowing that an island-wide voting system will be put in place in time.

At its meeting yesterday, the States’ Assembly & Constitution Committee debated the first draft of the election proposals it will put to the States in the next few months.

In one of their main decisions, the committee wants to get rid of the £600 subsidy that was paid to election candidates in the 2016 parish election and move towards a user pays principle. While the grant covered a candidate sending out their manifesto to their constituency, the cost of posting a manifesto island-wide would be far higher and would ramp up the costs of the election. 

SACC is looking at putting together a combined manifesto instead, however the committee wants to know first how the public wants to receive information ahead of the election.

SACC President Deputy Neil Inder has criticised his predecessors for not starting preparations for an island-wide election before October's referendum, where the public voted in favour of a new voting system. 

I was only wondering this when I asked for the file on 'Plan after Guernsey Referndum" The Committee did have one right.... https://t.co/lMbff12mog

— tothevale (@tothevale) February 6, 2019

Former President Deputy Peter Roffey led an exodus from the committee when he resigned shortly after the referendum result, saying that the reforms were better led by someone who believed in them.

Some members expressed doubts that it will be possible to introduce island-wide voting by May or June 2020, but Deputy Inder and his committee said they were absolutely committed to getting the election ready. 

Deputy Inder said: "There will be an island-wide election in 2020 without a shadow of a doubt. The States said that as long as there was a turn-out of over 40%, they would adopt the results of the referendum. The question is the kind of island-wide election – the level of grants to candidates, how we define a party or association and how they are regulated, does it comply with the Venice Convention. And what we have got to do is make the election easy for the public to understand."

The possibility of party politics has been much-debated, but Deputy Inder said people had a right to free expression and to affiliate with political groups if they chose to.

"We are obliged to ensure that any association is fully transparent, it is fair, and in some way regulated, and I think the level of regulation is where the argument will be. 

"It is not looking like we will be giving public funding to candidates beyond the work that government does for them at the moment. We as a committee have certainly agreed that we are putting a value on that."

In 2016, election candidates got a deal from the Post Office, exposure on the States website and work by the States’ internal communications team. 

Discussions around the table also suggest the cost of the 2020 election will be significantly higher than previous elections since the States can no longer rely on the many hours of voluntary work that has historically been done by the douzaines.

SACC also met senior figures from Home Affairs to discuss creating a new electoral roll that is fit-for-purpose for the 2020 election and complies with new data protection principles. The committee also wants to know how to best communicate with people on the electoral roll and whether people would prefer to be contacted by email or telephone rather than by post.