ELECTORS in Guernsey have already begun voting by post in the Bailiwick’s general election ahead of polling day next Wednesday. As the campaign moved into its final phase, JEP political correspondent Tom Innes travelled to the neighbouring jurisdiction to assess the mood among candidates...
THE pitfalls of Island-wide voting was one of the stronger themes to emerge from a busy school assembly hall as election hopefuls and voters convened for one of the final organised events of the 2025 campaign.
Most of the 82 candidates bidding for the 38 Guernsey seats in the States of Deliberation – two Alderney representatives making up the 40-person Assembly were elected last December – attended the event at Les Beaucamps High School, and seemed to exceed the number of voters present for the three-hour event.
With no division of the island into parishes or electoral districts, as was the case before 2020, and estimates that a candidate might need the support of between 5,000 and 6,000 of the 27,000 registered voters to be elected, access to the electorate was mentioned by many of those present.
“It’s much harder to meet voters, and also harder for voters to access those standing – that lack of contact is something that many people have found,” said Deputy Yvonne Burford, who was elected for a four-year term under the old district system in 2012, lost her seat four years later but then gained an Island-wide mandate in 2020 with the 12th-highest count of votes.
In the role of Scrutiny President, Deputy Burford carried out a review into island-wide voting during the last term and said she aimed to repeat this exercise if re-elected next week.
Another bidding for re-election, Deputy Aidan Matthews, said the 2025 campaign had been challenging, even though the number of candidates had dropped from 119 to 82.
“I’ve found it slightly more chaotic and disjointed than 2020,” he said. “I think voters were excited about the new system five years ago, but now they are feeling jaded and have been disappointed by the States’ performance over this term – it’s definitely an uphill battle as an incumbent.”
As an indication of the challenge of connecting with voters, Deputy Adrian Gabriel – another seeking to win a second term – mentioned a two-day event the previous weekend, with candidates arranged at table around a large room for “speed-dating” style (albeit without a time clock) encounters with voters.
Deputy Gabriel said he had spoken to 35 electors across the two days, equating to just 0.13% of those registered. Rather than relying on this method, he said he had moved quickly to promote himself through posters and social media, albeit with some challenges about Facebook rules around paid “boosting” for political posts.
With Jersey set to bring back an element of island-wide voting for the June 2026 election, albeit for only nine of the 49 positions rather than across the board, there was a warning for the neighbours from one veteran politician.
“Jersey should reconsider the direction in which they appear to be travelling,” said Deputy David De Lisle, who was first elected for Guernsey’s West district in 2004.
“Elections were much easier to manage then,” he said. “There were 11 candidates [contesting six positions] for voters to get to know, and two hustings meetings and that’s what I think we should go back to.”
While greater diversity is often held up as a positive potential outcome, Deputy De Lisle said this was not his experience.
“There are all sorts of people coming forward – voters don’t know their backgrounds and they don’t have any affinity for a parish or district, I sense some of them see the prospect of the salary [£40,000] and think it’s a money tree,” he added.
With eight incumbents stepping down at the election, including Chief Minister Lyndon Trott and his Deputy, Heidi Soulsby, there will be at least that many new faces in the next States, with Deputy De Lisle predicting there would be 16 “newbies” elected and warning that this might bring a lack of experience to the Assembly.
Party politics, still in relative infancy in Jersey in spite of Reform’s 20% representation in the current Caesarean Assembly, hasn’t become established at all in Guernsey.
Former Chief Minister Gavin St Pier has established Forward Guernsey, with six candidates conspicuous by their party t-shirts among what was in most cases a casual dress code.
One Forward candidate contesting an election for the first time, Rhona Humphreys, said she had also found it hard to reach people, and questioned whether social media might play too large a role and risk “skewing the reality” of the political landscape.
Ms Humphreys did say that through the sheer number of different events for candidates – a total of 30 such gatherings were listed on the official election website – had helped bind the candidates together and could act as a similar unifying factor in the new States for those elected.
But other candidates said they had been told by a number of islanders that they would automatically not be including any party candidates among their choices (voters may place a tick by the name of up to 38 candidates on the ballot paper).
“Guernsey’s not ready for party politics,” said Tina Bury, who said she was campaigning on behalf of “the average Joe or Josephine” as an alternative to others from more affluent backgrounds. Although she had spoken to Deputy St Pier, whose party could also be described as lying to the left of the political centre, she said she retained a firm preference for running as an independent.
Ms Bury was one of dozens of candidates who reached the event at Les Beaucamps – around three miles west of downtown St Peter Port – on their own election transport, namely an electric bicycle complete with “A-frame” poster strapped above the rear wheel.
Another opting for the electric bike instead of a gas-guzzling “battle bus”, Ross Le Brun, has attempted to stand out from the crowd and gain election at the third time of trying through the use of election posters which he has drawn himself.
One of the few to eschew the casual dress code in favour of smarter togs, incorporating an orange theme, was former Specsavers technician Art Allen, hoping to win election at the second attempt and describing the last political term as a disaster for the island.
He said: “The egos have been fighting the egos and in doing so they’ve taken their eyes off the ball, namely housing, the economy and tourism.”
Seeking out positive comment about island-wide voting wasn’t the easiest task, but there was predictably strong support from the politician who helped spearhead the proposed changes to the system in the run-up to the 2020 election.
Deputy Neil Inder, almost certainly best known to people in Jersey for his public disagreements with fellow Economic Development Minister Deputy Kirsten Morel over the past eight months, was optimistic of what the new system would bring to the class of 2025 in its second outing.
“We’re going to see a good crop of new members, and I think there’s some real talent among the candidates,” he said. “They are working hard, the weather has been with us and it’ll be fascinating to see what level of penetration they can achieve with voters.”
Many Sarnians voters who registered for postal votes have already filled in their ballot papers and posted them back, while others will be able to take advantage of “pre-poll” voting at three locations on Sunday and Tuesday. For everyone else, polling stations will open between 8am and 8pm on Wednesday.
