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Our broken electoral system needs fixing
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From Deputy Daniel Wimberley.
THIS week I am bringing a proposal to the States to set up an electoral commission whose task will be to find a better electoral system for Jersey.
Our present system is broke and it needs fixing, in spite of the minor reforms which have been made.
Many members of the States now recognise this, and in the last rounds of debates on reform in January and March there were calls from all sides for such a commission.
I think the commission should have three members from outside the Island to provide expertise in electoral systems, in public participation, and an unbiased viewpoint. I want three local members to provide local understanding and local feeling.
The commission must be completely focused as it carries out its work on the need for public acceptability of the final proposal. That is why I am proposing a high threshhold for the referendum – the States would only proceed to act on the basis of the referendum if 60% of those voting vote yes to the proposal of the commission.
The States should not meddle in the proposal from the commission; they should just pass the necessary act to put the proposal to the public for their vote.
Many letters to your paper have pointed out the flaws in our electoral system. Firstly, it is utterly unfair.
The Constable of St Helier represents nearly 11 times more people than the Constable of St John. All eight Constables of the smallest eight parishes represent fewer people than the one Constable of the biggest parish. How can that be right?
If you add in the Deputies, the imbalance shifts but remains. Islanders living in the eight smallest parishes have more power than others. One and a half times more power to be precise. Is that right?
Then there is the inequality between mandates. As a Deputy I got 261 votes, a poll-topping Senator gets 13,000 votes maybe. But we count for the same in the Assembly and apparently it counts for nothing in who gets to be a minister. Is that right? Is that what the public want?
Secondly, voters cannot change the government. You cannot pass a verdict on this or that Council of Ministers. All you do is elect members into the States (on a completely unfair system).
When the Liberal Democrats went back on their election pledges on tuition fees, they had to face the music, from voters and supporters who felt betrayed. Their explanation was: ‘we have to compromise, we are in a coalition. But look, we have won concessions, we have achieved x and y from our pre-election commitments, but we have had to give up a and b. And we are sorry.’
That is what accountability looks like. You don’t see anything like it in Jersey – and that is something which should be addressed if democracy is to thrive.
There are other symptoms that something is badly wrong. Our turnout figures are low. We are on a par with the worst constituencies of the UK. Guernsey and the IoM both have more people voting than we do.
Our voter registration is likewise very low, varying from around 85% in the country parishes to 73% in St Saviour and 65% in St Helier. Does it matter? In Denmark it is 96%, in the UK it is 95% in France it is 90%.
The present electoral system is not fit for purpose. It is unfair, it is massively biased, and there is too little connection between the voters’ cross in the polling booth and who ends up governing the Island as one of the ministers. Our voter registration and voter turnout figures are both way below international norms, and many elections are uncontested.
So reform is absolutely necessary, but the States cannot deliver. The debates on reform have been endless and have not shown the States in a good light. I hope that the States vote for an independent electoral commission because only such a body, looking at all the issues, is likely to come up with a well-argued, well-constructed system that Islanders can agree to in a referendum.
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