Are 80 manifestos too many?

Monday 17 September 2018

Spokespersons for four of the five options in the upcoming Island Wide Voting Referendum have all convened in the same place for the first time, to present arguments for their preferred options.

The event was organised by the IoD as one of their monthly breakfasts on Friday, - drawing a crowd from both the IoD and non members, all attending to hear first hand what the representatives had to say.

Options A, B and C all have official campaign groups assigned to them, while Options D and E do not, but a member of the IoD, Nigel De La Rue, spoke on behalf of option D.

Deputies Carl Meerveld and Peter Ferbrache spoke for Option A, Caroline McManus for Option B and Deputy Chris Green for C. 

Each gave a speech arguing their case and then answered questions from the floor in the first public hustings-style event there has been surrounding the referendum. One focus point for the crowd was whether 80 manifestos would be too many for the public to read through and decide upon - 80 being the average number of candidates in a Guernsey election. Deputy Ferbrache said this would not be too much of a stretch for people to do, while his partner, Deputy Meerveld promised he would be teaching people a technique to vote for 38 people in 38 seconds.

Meanwhile, members of the IoD in the crowd said the system would require too much attention from them to work, as they did not want to have to read through 80 manifestos.

This would be the result of Option A - the equivalent to full island wide voting - which would see 38 deputies voted for by the entire island in one large scale vote.

Pictured: The five options in the upcoming referendum 

The speakers for both Options C and D also addressed this point, agreeing with the members of the crowd who spoke out. They both said their options represented a progressive and gradual step toward IWV, without taking as large a leap as Option A would be. 

Deputy Green said he was to a degree in favour of full island wide voting, but felt Option C would be a more reasonable approach that had the positives of the current system mixed with the positives from Option A, without the negatives. 

It was concluded by many that Option A would best facilitate a full scale party system, which Guernsey does not have at the moment, although Deputy Meerveld said there are an increasing number of parties arising, alongside the Islanders Association: "There is another party in the wings at the moment with Deputy St Pier, then there is the Guernsey Conservative party which has just appeared on Twitter, and also the Whigs party, so things are moving in that direction". 

Friday also saw the States Assembly and Constitution Committee release advice on how people can be sure they are on the electoral role. There are currently 30,479 voters on the roll, so the number of voters who need to have their say to ensure the poll reaches the 40% threshold is now 12,192 voters. That threshold will force the States to adhere to the most popular result, but if it isn't crossed, the referendum result won't be binding.

A spokesperson for SACC said: "In order to vote in the referendum people need to be on the Electoral Roll. If a person was on the Electoral Roll for the 2016 General Election, and they have not moved house or changed name, they remain on the Electoral Roll and do not need to do anything.