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Islanders are crying out for change, but not for the removal of the Senators
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From Peter Bewers.
YOUR correspondent Nigel Pearce (JEP, 23 January) makes many very good points regarding a possible overhaul of the constitution of our States Assembly to get more voter interest, which would certainly be a step in the right direction.
Without going into too much detail, those of us old enough to remember will recall that in the first States Assemblies that were held after the Occupation, Senators were elected for nine years and were expected to hold most of the major presidencies. Deputies still held office for three years, as did the Constables. The term of office of the Senators has been reduced to six years, as it was generally felt that nine years was too long.
While I, like many Islanders, feel that the constitution of the States could do with some modernisation, I cannot go along with the recommendations of Privileges and Procedures chairman Juliette Gallichan’s move to remove four Senators from the Assembly, as these Members are elected all-Island and should be the base from where all the ministers should come.
Currently we have several major committees led by ministers, as they are now called, and by the Island Constables, which is not good democracy because of the mandate they hold of their parish and not all-Island.
Many electors must feel that either they are neglecting their parish which they were elected to head or run, or they do not have enough to do to be able to take on States ministries in the first place.
Of course there is another way of looking at this problem. There are probably not enough good leaders or talent in the Assembly, so the Constables are expected to have to take on these roles.
Under the new form of ministerial government many people, myself included, would like to see the election of the Chief Minister one in which the Island electorate had some say in choosing, not left to the States Assembly.
We will have an election this year for Senators, of which two prominent members have put their names forward as possible candidates for Chief Minister. This gives the Island electorate an excellent opportunity to show which of the two candidates they would choose to fill the most important office in the States Assembly.
The problem at the moment is that the Assembly and Members can take not a blind bit of notice and elect someone probably with the least number of votes, ignore the feelings of the Islanders, saying we know better than you.
So there is plenty of work for Mrs Gallichan to do, but will she do it? Islanders are crying out for change, but not the way she is going about it by removing Senators.
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