Referendum only attracts three willing campaign groups

Saturday 26 May 2018

The planned referendum on island wide voting has attracted just three pairs of politically minded campaigners, despite there being five options when we go to the polls in October.

With five possible versions of future election formats due to be listed on the ballot papers - named A to E, the States Assembly and Constitution Committee wanted to find five different groups to lead the campaigning to raise public awareness of all of the options.

However, despite aiming for a campaign group for each available referendum option, just six people have come forward and their names will be known to people who already follow island politics.

• Deputy Carl Meerveld and Peter Ferbrache have been nominated as campaign officials for Option A
• Mr Fergus Dunlop and Mrs Caroline McManus have been nominated as campaign officials for Option B
• Deputy John Gollop and Mr Rhoderick Matthews have been nominated as campaign officials for Option C

No one has come forward or been nominated for either Option D or Option E. All of the options are listed below: 

The applications will now be considered by the Independent Assessment Panel which will:  

• review and assess any application made by a group; and
• certify whether or not, in the opinion of the Panel, the group which has submitted the application is capable of publicising and representing the option they wish to promote.

SACC said the Panel may "request additional information or clarification from a group if they feel that something in the application requires further explanation" and that any such requests will be passed to the group via the Lead Referendum Officer. 

Once the applications have been considered by the Panel against the criteria listed below, it is likely that each group will be requested to meet with the Panel to discuss their application, prior to the Panel assessing the group’s ability to represent an option and presenting its recommendations to SACC. 

The successful campaign groups will be decided by a panel comprising former Bailiff Sir de Vic Carey, Sir de Vic Carey, Jurat Stephen Jones and Mr Graham Daldry. As no one has applied to run campaign groups for Option D or Option E there will not be campaign groups for those options.

The campaign period is expected to commence on Saturday 1 September and close at 23:59 on Tuesday 9 December. The "referendum period" is expected to start on 11 June and end on Wednesday 10 October, the planned date of the referendum on Island Wide Voting. 

On Wednesday 10 October polls will open in each of the existing electoral districts with those on the electoral roll able to choose one of the five options.