Information relating to unsuccessful candidates in the 2020 general election has been removed from the internet, but all information relating to those elected as our deputies remains live and accessible.
Concerns had been raised by reporters and members of the public asking if information such as manifestos and election pledges had been taken down recently.
A States spokesman confirmed it has been - but only where it relates to those people who stood for election but did not secure enough votes to be elected as a deputy.
They said that the decision to take the information down was made following a question being raised by one of the unsuccessful candidates. The States team with responsibility for the election2020.gg website took advice from the States of Guernsey's data protection officers who recommended information relating to unsuccessful candidates should be removed.
Pictured: The ODPA advises that political opinion is protected information under the special category data.
The ODPA lists examples of where personal data is protected on its website.
Political opinion, along with health data, ethnic origin, religion and other examples, is classed as 'special category data' and is protected.
As the majority of the candidates who stood for the 2020 election were not voted into office, their data remains protected as private individuals.
The political views of those 38 candidates who were elected in to the States is considered in the public interest so their views, as expressed in manifestos and questionnaires before October 2020, remains publicly available at election2020.gg.
Pictured: The successful candidates in the 2020 general election can still be researched using the website.
119 people had been nominated for Guernsey's first fully island wide election - with 38 seats in the States available.
637,567 votes were cast by 24,627 people out of an electoral roll of 30,899 people.
The poll topper was Deputy Gavin St Pier with 13,927 votes while Deputy Carl Meerveld was re-elected for his second term in 38th position with 6,477 votes.
19 of the 38 successful candidates were previously States Members while 19 were new candidates.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.