JERSEY’S first election under new districts and without Senators has produced a States Assembly ‘more reflective of the Island’s population and communities’, according to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s observer mission, which issued its preliminary comments yesterday.
The mission confirmed that the process it witnessed over a ten-day period was ‘conducive to democratic elections’.
However, it identified a number of issues including constituency boundaries, understanding of the newly-established Jersey Electoral Authority and voter registration.
The delegation said it witnessed 34 inaccuracies in the voter register – such as people being wrongly removed from the register or turning up to the wrong polling station.
It also noted that the number of registered voters has fallen by 1,422 since the 2018 elections.
The mission will also consider whether to include recommendations concerning election booklets — where problems were experienced both over delivery and in one case the content of information – in its final report which will be published in two months’ time.
Deputy Kirsten Morel threatened to take legal action against the States Greffe earlier this month after he was wrongly listed as a Jersey Alliance member in the St Lawrence, Trinity and St John booklet, which was delivered to all homes in the district.
But the mission adopted a cautious approach over a more controversial subject – the inclusion of Constables in the States.
The position has long attracted criticism, as each Constable has the same voice in the Assembly irrespective of the number of voters in his or her parish.
The mission pointed out obliquely that the new boundary arrangements implemented following the last elections ‘only pertain to the Deputy elections’.
Head of mission Martin Whitfield, the MSP representing South Scotland, said: ‘The new boundaries for Deputy elections respect international good practice as articulated by the Venice Commission. However, margins are exceeded when the ratio of electors to elected representatives includes both Deputies and Constables.’
And Mr Whitfield was also circumspect about one of the changes introduced following the last election – the loss of the Senatorial Islandwide mandate – acknowledging that it was an issue raised with the mission prior to the election and on polling day by a number of Islanders.
‘What we were looking at was the electoral landscape as it was for this election in which Senators and the Islandwide mandate was not a part. For the people of Jersey and those who were successful in the election it will clearly exercise their mind and will not, in any way, go away,’ he said.
The CPA election mission was invited by the Privileges and Procedures Committee to observe Wednesday’s election, arriving a week earlier to examine the pre-election arrangements. The Election Law was changed in 2017 to allow the workings of the election to be assessed independently in this way.
