Guernsey is getting full Island Wide Voting

Thursday 11 October 2018

Option A has won the island's first ever referendum, with 6,017 votes out of the total 14,370 cast.

The option will see Guernsey get full Island Wide voting, with votes on 38 deputies every four years in one large election.

Pictured: The results over the four rounds.

The final decision came down to the number of secondary votes cast between Option A and Option C in the fourth round of voting, where Option C ended up with just 5,448 of the votes in total. Option A had been the poll leader through each round, coming out of round one with 5,304 votes and 6,017 in total. 

"I think this is progress," Deputy Carl Meerveld, founding member of the Islanders Association. 

Deputy Carl Meerveld is one of the founding members of the Islanders Association, which had lobbied for island wide voting, and Option A, since its inception. He was behind a large amount of the campaign for Option A, extolling the promised virtues of island wide voting, and he said from the start it was the first goal of the Association.

He was "obviously happy" with the result.

"I am relieved and overjoyed, and happy that we are changing the form of our government to a much more representative form," he said.

"I think we definitely saw an evoloution in the public's attitude toward Option A throughout our campaign, their reaction changed over time. At first when we went out on the streets there was some level of resistance, but as we spoke to people they came around and have been more supportive."

Deputy Meerveld said, in his opinion, Island Wide Voting has been something Guernsey's population has wanted for around 15 years, and he was happy it was going ahead now. 

Going forwards, he believes more association-like bodies, or parties, will form: "I want to see a place where a body of politicians can stand up with a defined manifesto, and people can either support them or not.

"I think this is progress."

Pictured: All of the ballot boxes before the votes were counted. 

Option D was the first to be knocked out in the first round of voting, which saw Option A get 5,304 votes, or 37.45% of the total number of ballots. Option D got the least number ones, with 672, and was knocked out.

Option B was in third place in round one, with 3,486 votes, or 24.62%; Option C in second, with 3,760, or 26.55% and option E fourth, with 940 votes, or 6.64%.

In the second round, Option A had 5,390 votes; B 3,761; C 3,914 and E 1,004, so E was eliminated.

In the third round B was eliminated with 3,932 votes in total by then. 

A won in the fourth round of counting. 

Pictured: Deputy Carl Meerveld who had campaigned for Option A.