Senator Sir Philip Bailhache said the current system is unwieldy, complicated and can ultimately lead to public apathy.
Currently there is only one political party in the Island – Reform Jersey – which ahead of May’s general election has revealed it intends to field 18 candidates standing under one manifesto.
And Senator Bailhache, who announced this week he would not be seeking re-election, believes that party politics is the way forward if there is going to be radical change in how Islanders view the States.
He said that twice – once before the 2014 election and again last autumn – he considered forming a political allegiance of like-minded people but on both occasions had to stop the plans, the first time because of a lack of support and the second because ill health prevented him from seeing it through.
Senator Bailhache is the latest minister to announce he will not be standing for election.
He said: ‘I think that politics at the moment is not in a particularly good place in Jersey. If one looks at the voter turnout we are at or close to the bottom of the European league.
‘I think people find our political system complicated – particularly immigrants to the Island who are used to political party systems find it difficult to comprehend the fact that we have three different types of Members all of whom have the same rights to vote and participate in the affairs of the States.’
He added that the current system of 49 States Members, made up largely of independent candidates, meant that pre-election promises are often broken because no one Member can guarantee their policies will be supported.
‘The absence of party politics makes it very difficult for people to understand what they are voting for,’ he said. ‘Individual candidates will have their own manifestos but they can’t tell the public that if they are elected those promises will be fulfilled because they don’t know whether they will form part of a government and don’t know whether those policies will form part of the government’s overall policies.
‘There is a mismatch between promises made by aspiring politicians and their ability to deliver on those promises.
‘I think that leads to disappointment and perhaps even cynicism on the part of the public who see no reason to vote for people who can’t deliver on their electoral promises.’
He added that despite finding many of their policies ‘unattractive’ he was interested to see how Reform Jersey performed in the May election.
Sir Philip Bailhache is the subject of this week’s Saturday interview in the Jersey Evening Post.
