THE 21 Senatorial candidates hit the hustings trail in St Clement tonight.
As usual, the candidates are going around the 12 parishes, finishing in St Helier two days before the election on 15 October.
And three extra meetings have also been scheduled – two ‘Meet the Candidates’ events at Fort Regent and the Royal Jersey Showground in Trinity, and a ‘countryside’ hustings that will also take place at the Trinity venue.
The elections are the most significant in several years – they are the first to take place after the move to the ministerial/Scrutiny system from the old committee structure, and the first since the deeply unpopular GST was introduced.
Because of the record number of candidates who have declared for Senator this year – three sitting Senators, five Deputies and 13 newcomers – the candidates have been given tight time limits to follow.
The meetings are scheduled to last around two hours, and the first hour will be taken up by the candidates’ three-minute introductory speeches.
And with responses to questions from the floor restricted to one minute each, audience members are only likely to get three questions in before the meeting closes.
Hustings meetings have now been set in the four parishes that are holding elections for Constables. The dates for the Constable’s hustings have been fixed as follows:
St Mary: Tue 30 Sept.
St Clement: Tue 7 Oct.
St Peter: Wed 8 Oct.
St Lawrence: Thu 9 Oct.
