TODAY is Decision Day and the polls are open in the elections that will decide 25 of the 29 Deputies’ seats in the new States Chamber.
Voters have until 8 pm to cast their ballots and choose which of the 63 candidates will be elected in 13 of the Island’s 17 districts. There will be at least five new Members elected to replace sitting Deputies who have been ‘promoted’ to the Senatorial and Constables’ seats or who have left the House.
Those who are elected today will hold seats for three years, at an estimated salary of £43,000 a year. Today’s elections are more numerically significant than last month’s Senatorial campaign that saw six seats decided – ten of the unsuccessful candidates in that election are running for Deputy today.
In the last Deputies’ elections three years ago, all the results had been counted by just after 10 pm. This year’s campaign has seen a disappointing turn-out at hustings meetings and an unprecedented number of election posters being torn down or defaced. There are also two police investigations looking into separate allegations of electoral fraud. It has been alleged that the postal voting system has been abused in St Helier No 1 and St Helier No 2.
