Are political parties essential for island wide voting?

Thursday 05 October 2023

Island wide voting might need political parties in order to work successfully according to the latest panel of experts discussing the subject.

The Scrutiny Management Committee has been hosting debates on the merits and challenges of island wide voting this week, following the first full general election in 2020.

Having voted to ditch districts in a referendum in 2018, the island elected 38 deputies out of 119 candidates in October 2020.

The next island wide vote is due to be held in 2025.

Pictured: The current States of Deliberation.

Led by Scrutiny President Deputy Yvonne Burford, the panel comprising of civil servant Mark Huntingdon, and former deputies Chris Green and Michelle Le Clerc, asked questions of six politicians, former politicians, political commentators and advisors.

The second panel on Wednesday saw David Piesing; an advisor to the Guernsey Party between 2020 and 2023, Deputy Peter Roffey, and Nigel De La Rue; who chaired a working group on behalf of an emerging island party ahead of the referendum, consider the impact of political parties.

Deputy Roffey acknowledged again that he is a fan of neither island wide voting or political parties, but he accepted both need the other to work successfully.

"...probably yes, I'd rather have neither but (island wide voting) is an electoral system that was designed to bring about political parties," he said.

Pictured: Deputy Yvonne Burford.

The Guernsey Party fielded eight candidates at the 2020 election with six securing seats in the States, but only two remaining members of the party today.

The Alliance Party Guernsey fielded 11 candidates with none successful. 

The Guernsey Partnership of Independents had 21 candidates, with 19 deputies elected, but it always said it was not a political party.

Mr De La Rue said the experience of political parties in 2020 and since then, doesn't mean they can't work in the island, while Mr Piesing said it's simply too early to tell how they could come together in the future.

"My gut feeling is that it's probably too early to make the judgement on whether island wide voting needs political parties, or whether it doesn't. It's very hard to determine a trend on what was a novel election," he said. "Whether more parties will emerge for the next election, it's impossible to know at this stage."

Deputy Burford asked Mr Piesing how many elections he thought we should we hold on an island wide basis, to see if parties emerge, before a decision is made on whether we should carry on with island wide voting or not.

"Any new election system probably needs at least two or three cycles before you can determine a trend," he said before explaining why he felt there was some dissatisfaction with the way the first fully island wide vote played out.

"It could have been down to who stood, it could have been down to voter inertia or just people being overwhelmed by the number of candidates. You might have had island wide voting but instead of 119 candidates you might have had only 80 and the whole thing might have gone very differently in terms of how manageable it was.

"Did anyone expect 119 candidates? I didn't. Were they attracted by dissatisfaction with how our government was going? We don't know, but 119 candidates, I was surprised."

Pictured (l-r): David Piesing, Deputy Peter Roffey, Nigel De La Rue.

Deputy Roffey appeared to agree with other commentators who have given their views at this week's Scrutiny hearings, who had said the number of candidates had been a hindrance to voters.

He thought some candidates decided to try to get elected because they had "nothing to lose".

"Why not give it a punt? There's nothing to lose. we'll get given some money, which didn't use to happen. We won't have to go through the trauma of a hustings because it won't be practical to organise, all we have to do is write something to go in a booklet, we might get in, who knows, what's to lose about it. No one is expecting me to knock on doors any more - I did, but there was no expectation - so I think that might be one of the reasons why there were so many candidates," he explained.

With the second half of Wednesday's hearing focused on political parties, Mr De La Rue gave examples of how the situation could change in future if the will is there.

"I don't think the only option is to carry on having island wide voting and wait for parties to emerge.

"We don't have a written constitution of course but we can legislate, encourage and incentivise the creation of political parties. There are many mechanisms if one looks around the world that operate and have operated in order to encourage the formation of political parties...I think we can make that work if there is a will to make that work."

The opinions shared during the two day Scrutiny hearing this week will be used to form a report on the success or otherwise of island wide voting.

Deputy Burford and Mr Huntingdon have sat on each panel this week, with former deputies Le Clerc, and Green and current deputies Simon Fairclough and Carl Meerveld as well.

Deputy Sue Aldwell, former deputies Mary Lowe, Matt Fallaize and Peter Gilson, douzenier Richard Digard, political advisor Alistair Doherty, campaigner Shelaine Green, and Professor Kevin Bales also gave their views during the four sessions.

Both the Monday and Wednesday sessions can be watched on YouTube HERE.

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