HOUSING Minister Sam Mézec has confirmed he will be standing for re-election in June and seeking one of the nine Senatorial seats.
The Reform Jersey party leader was first elected to the States Assembly exactly 12 years ago.
He becomes the fourth current minister to confirm they will be contesting the Senatorial election after Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham, Treasury Minister Elaine Millar and External Relations Minister Ian Gorst.
As party leader, he would be Reform Jersey’s Chief Minister candidate.
He said: “I hope to serve the Island again and play my part in delivering a government that can tackle the challenges we are facing.
“I believe the key issues the next government must focus on are; addressing the cost of living, fixing our ailing infrastructure and restoring accountability on public spending.
“In decades gone by, Jersey felt like a place that was on the up. Islanders had the opportunity to work hard and live decent lives, with good public services and plenty to enjoy here. But under successive generations of government, it has felt more like a managed decline, with little vision for how to get Jersey back on track, while many Islanders have lost hope and sought better futures elsewhere.
Deputy Mézec, who has been Reform Jersey leader since the party’s inception, was first elected as a St Helier Deputy in 2014 following a by-election. He retained his seat in the election later that year, before standing for Senator in 2018, where he narrowly secured one of the seats in the Islandwide vote.
He topped the poll in his current St Helier South district in the 2022 election, which also saw nine of his party colleagues secure seats in the Chamber across the Island.
“We need to turn the tide,” Deputy Mézec said. “Another collection of independent politicians who offer nice words at the election but don’t have a credible plan for how to deliver on it will not be able to fix this. They will talk the talk when it comes to things like reducing wasteful public spending, but as the history shows, they are not capable of walking the walk.
“In this term of office, our Reform Jersey team has shown what can be achieved when we do politics properly. From action to resolve our housing crisis, support for families with the cost of childcare and much more, we have been the driving force behind much of the progress the States has made recently. With greater numbers in the Assembly, we can start to fix the causes of our problems.”
As well as Housing Minister, Deputy Mézec is also a former Children’s Minister as well as being head of Scrutiny.
“I hope I have proven to the public that I am an effective politician, a decisive minister and capable leader of a team that is unified and constructive,” he said. “I have also never been afraid to challenge vested interests in order to get the right results for the majority of Islanders. I want to use these skills to take Jersey forward and deliver the kind of politics that we need to address the huge challenges we are facing.”
The role of Senator was scrapped ahead of the 2022 election, but has been brought back following a successful States proposition from Deputy Millar.
Islanders will head to the polls on Sunday 7 June – the first time a Jersey election has been held on the weekend.
