LAST Friday, new States Members were formally sworn in by the Royal Court, each politician taking their oath of office before the Bailiff, Lieutenant-Governor and Jurats.
After the successful election candidates officially became States Members for the next four years, the Bailiff, Robert MacRae, who is president of the States Assembly, welcomed the new intake, sharing some of his observations of past and present elections and setting out some the challenges that the elected representatives face.
We reproduce his speech to help set the scene for their task at hand:
Senators, Connétables and Deputies, may I on behalf of His Excellency, the Deputy Bailiff, the Jurats and the Law Officers congratulate you all most warmly on your election to office.
These congratulations also extend to your long-suffering families – who have had the dubious privilege of living with you during the campaign! They have stuffed envelopes for you, put up and taken down posters, been forced to attend hustings or – even worse – watch them online.
They have also had to listen to a running commentary as to how the election campaign is going. Their only revenge at the end is to tell you that you should not have worried so much, as it was all going to be OK!
Some of you are new Members in the sense that you have never been Members of the States before. Some of you are old Members – familiar faces from the last Assembly.
There are a handful of you that fall into neither category – three. I’m not sure whether I should call you new-old members or old-new members, or even perhaps old-old members. In any event, we congratulate you all.
Now the election is behind us, I would just like to publicly thank all those who have worked so hard to ensure that the elections took place. I would like to pay tribute to the sterling efforts and good humour of the Judicial Greffier, the autorisés, including the Jurats, all the Parish staff, the Honorary Police, the vote.je team, the JEA, the CPA election observers, and so many volunteers, particularly those who helped work through the night to carry out the count – all of whom contributed to ensure that the true verdict of the people of Jersey was ascertained by the election last Sunday.
We can, of course, give thanks for the fact that the elections passed off peacefully. That is not always the case in less fortunate jurisdictions. It has not always been the case in Jersey, either.
Much of the violence in times past seemed to centre round the Parish of St Martin. On Sunday 22 July 1821 there were elections for Jurat.
St Martin was a stronghold of the Laurel Party. There was a small number of Roses there. Twenty came to cast their vote at the church. Their way was blocked by 200 Laurels.
The newspaper reported that “the first batch of five that made their appearance were at once set upon, even in the presence of the police, and were almost torn to pieces as they left the church where Poingdestre, a Laurel Jurat, was presiding. Others were knocked down and their clothes literally torn off their backs”.
Of the 20 Roses, only 11 succeeded in making their mark. The final St Martin vote was 232 for Bertram, the Laurel candidate, and just 11 for the Rose candidate, Durell.
The names of those 11 were recorded for posterity. Islandwide, the Rose candidate won by 1,276 votes to 1,079. Nonetheless, the disputes as to the outcome of the election went on for many years until the actual winner of the contest threw in the towel.
Worse still was the election for Connétable in St Martin in December 1844. By now the day upon which elections took place had been moved from Sunday to Tuesday in order to reduce the violence. The candidates were Thomas Meservy and Thomas Laffoley.
Meservy won by 177 votes to 140. However, Laffoley complained to the Royal Court, alleging that people had been fraudulently added to the rates list, underage voters had been allowed to vote, gifts had been given to voters and menaces offered to his voters with some being stopped from casting their ballots.
The case reached the Royal Court where it was argued that Laffoley’s advocate made some procedural errors fatal to his case. The Inferior Number agreed with this, so did (on appeal) the Superior Number.
The appeal to the Privy Council was not pursued with vigour or at all because neither Meservy nor Laffoley wanted to pay the fees of the English barristers.
So, in consequence, St Martin did not have a Connétable for the following 17 years.
Eventually, Laffoley and Meservy, who were now old men, agreed to put aside their differences and jointly support the Chef de Police who stood unopposed and was elected as Connétable. They then spent the evening drinking at the Royal in St Martin with their wider families.
So, to emerge from election with only one re-count that was disposed of quickly isn’t a bad outcome in the circumstances.
My thanks go to Stuart Nicolle from the Archive for telling me these and many other stories.
In the oaths that you have taken, you have promised loyalty to the King, our Sovereign. In that vein, I am delighted to welcome His Excellency today. Our relationship with the United Kingdom is through the person of the Sovereign and not the English Parliament which, of course, is something we can date back to Jersey’s decision to pledge allegiance to the English Crown in 1204 in return for the privileges and liberties of the island.
You have just promised to uphold and maintain those privileges, those freedoms, opposing whomsoever may wish to infringe upon them. Our right to self-govern, acknowledged in the recital to the 2005 States of Jersey Law, has been achieved by endeavours of our ancestors and as the elected representatives of the people of Jersey, that is now entrusted to you to preserve during your term of office and, if you can, enhance it.
It is a duty that I share to some extent as guardian of the constitution. But it is important to remember that it is you and only you who have the democratic mandate to speak for the inhabitants of this island.
Politicians and officials elsewhere, including that of the United Kingdom, have no such right or mandate. It is to you that Islanders will look for the upholding of those rights and freedoms.
This is not an easy time to be an elected representative. Maybe that is something that could have been said by any of my predecessors sitting in this chair. But it does seem that democracy is under threat, certainly beyond our shores, in a way that we had not anticipated only a few years ago.
As representatives of Jersey, many, if not most of you during your terms of office, will meet and form professional relationships with members of other governments and parliamentarians of other jurisdictions in order to further the cause of cooperation between states.
Such international cooperation is also under threat in a way that we are not used to.
Earlier this year in January, I was fortunate enough to attend a conference of Commonwealth speakers, at which Dr Tulia Ackson, previously speaker of the Parliament of Tanzania and now President of the Interparliamentary Union which brings together over 180 member parliaments, said the following:
“…. we meet at a critical moment. The year 2026 has begun with concerning developments that put forth a painful reminder of how fragile and uncertain the international environment has become.
“At the international level, multilateralism is increasingly judged not by the values it upholds, but by how quickly it reacts or how visible its actions appear. Patience, compromise, and long-term cooperation often struggle to compete with demands for immediate results.
“Quiet diplomacy, careful negotiation and consensus building can seem slow in a world that rewards urgency and spectacle – even though these are precisely the qualities that have sustained international cooperation over time.
“Similar doubts are being cast on democracy itself. Many citizens question whether democratic institutions can still respond effectively to their concerns, whether they can deliver fairness, stability, and opportunity in a rapidly changing world.
“When expectations rise faster than institutions can adapt, frustration grows. And when trust weakens, the very foundations of democratic life begin to feel uncertain. These pressures are not separate. They mirror one another.
“The doubts we hear about multilateralism on the global stage echo the doubts we hear about democracy at home. In both cases, institutions are expected to move faster, to be more visible, to deliver immediate answers. And in both cases, the quieter work of dialogue, procedure and compromise is too often and too easily mistaken for weakness.
“You confront the same forces that challenge both multilateralism and democracy alike, namely polarisation, technological disruption, declining trust in institutions, and rising expectations from our constituents.”
It is within this environment that you begin this new term of our Island parliament. Happily for me, as an impartial presiding officer, it is not my task to advise on how to deal with the challenges you face. But I do recognise them and they are, in some respects, formidable ones.
What I can say to new Members is that in a small jurisdiction where the principal organs of the state are readily accessible to those elected to office, whether a government minister or an ordinary member, a proposition may lead to change of a law or practice, or a speech may change the course of debate.
One member may effect an important change which benefits many in our community. So, each of you can make a positive difference to the welfare of the lives of our fellow Jersey Islanders. You can influence the direction that this Island takes.
Finally, as presiding officer of the States Assembly, I look forward to working with all of you. For those of you who are new, you will soon come to appreciate the excellent service the Greffier of the States and her staff provide to members and to the Assembly generally.
Once again, I congratulate you and wish you every success during your terms of office.
