By Sir Mark Boleat
ON 9 September the States Assembly will once again debate its favourite subject – itself. In March the Assembly decided by just a single vote to reinstate the position of Senator with effect from the 2026 election, the number of Deputies in each of the electoral districts being reduced so that the overall size of the Assembly is unchanged.
The necessary legislation to implement this change is complicated. The Privileges and Procedures Committee duly published a draft on 7 July. It has not been a simple process. As the committee commented:
“As sweeping changes were made to the Elections (Jersey) Law 2002 in 2021, it was not simply a case of inserting the word ‘Senator’ into the existing Law anywhere that Deputies and Connétables were mentioned. The drafting process has been quite complex, as can be seen by the length of the draft Law.”
The draft law runs to 20 pages and the explanatory note alone is six pages long. In the report accompanying the proposition the committee said: “The draft contains much detail which is absolutely essential to ensure the revised constitution of the Assembly hangs together effectively. PPC therefore urges Members to exercise caution should they choose to submit amendments and to bear in mind that many of the Articles are intrinsic to the practical application of the Law.”
This was a rather forlorn hope given the nature of the Assembly. There are three substantive amendments all of which raise important points of principle which will no doubt be subject to considerable debate.
St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft has proposed an amendment to reduce the number of Senators from nine to seven, and increase the number of Deputies in St Helier North and St Helier South from three to four. His argument is that seven Senatorial seats will be sufficient to provide electors with a good choice of Island-wide representation, with the additional Deputy seats going to the two constituencies left most under-represented by the States’ decision.
This will no doubt lead to consideration of the wider issue of equality of voting power. Here it is necessary to go back to the rationale for the reforms for the 2022 election. The previous constituencies for Deputies meant that some votes counted much more than others. The accepted standard on equality of voting power is the recommendations of the Venice Commission, established by the Council of Europe. They provide that variation from the average should never exceed 15% and seldom exceed 10%. The 2022 constituencies for Deputies were in line with this recommendation although, of course, if Constables are considered the position is very different.
Taking one Deputy from each constituency significantly changes the issue of equality of voting power because one from three is a 33.3% reduction whereas one from five is a 20% reduction. With the proposed new constituencies, Grouville/St Martin and St Clement exceeds the 15% threshold, Grouville/St Martin being significantly under-represented. Constable Crowcroft’s amendment, however, largely deals with the under-representation of St Helier as a result of Constables having the vote.
Deputy Hilary Jeune has proposed that candidates for the office of Senator should be required to have a proposer and 14 seconders, one or two from each of the nine constituencies for Deputies. This is likely to be less controversial and indeed there may well be an argument for increasing the number from 14. Senatorial elections will be more meaningful if no-hopers are excluded so requiring significant support in order to stand is not unreasonable.
The amendment which is likely to result in most debate is that of Deputy Montfort Tadier, which is to hold the Senator elections before the Deputy elections. This would allow those candidates not elected as Senators to stand for Deputy. The Senatorial elections would identify the candidates most likely to hold the senior positions in the Council of Ministers and almost certainly the new Chief Minister would be one of the Senators. Some of those who failed to get elected would undoubtedly make excellent Deputies. However, the draft law provides that the elections will all be held on the same day.
Those considering standing for Senator therefore have a big decision to take because if they fail to be elected as a Senator, they will be out of the States Assembly completely. If they opted to stand for Deputy only there would be a reasonable chance that they would be elected, but would be less likely to have a significant post in the Council of Ministers. Perhaps requiring such a difficult choice is precisely the intention of some people.
Deputy Tadier’s amendment raises a wider issue. While Members of the Assembly and no doubt readers of this article understand the differences between Deputies, Senators and Constables and will no doubt be voting in the election this is not the case for probably 90% of the population. They have no understanding of the different positions nor is there any reason why they should. Indeed, a ballot paper which asks electors to vote for three different categories of politician is complicated and may well contribute to the low level of turnout. It certainly discourages a proper debate on Island-wide issues.
Going back many years, elections for Constables, Senators and Deputies were held on different days. Arguably this is a much better system even if it would be more costly. The election for Senators would concentrate on Island-wide issues and would give Islanders an opportunity to have a much better understanding of the different qualities of the people who will make up the next Council of Ministers.
One other issue may well be raised during the debate. The election is to be held on Sunday 7 June 2026. The recommendation of the Venice Commission is that major changes should not be made to the electoral system within a year of the election. Here, major changes are being made six months before the date of the election, although some might argue that the key decision was taken in March this year. The Privileges and Procedures Committee originally proposed that the reinstatement of Senators should apply from the 2030 election for precisely that reason.
A final point is that, at least among democracies, perhaps only in Jersey is the constitution settled entirely on the basis of a simple vote between people all of whom have a vested interest in the result. This is no way to run a democracy and the Assembly is running a reputational risk with the way it is handling this matter.
Whatever the outcome of the debate on 9 September, and no doubt it will run on beyond that, it would be sensible to set up a process for all of these matters to be considered by a commission, including external members, in the first year of a new Assembly. This should be supported by a comprehensive survey of the composition of the people who voted and analysis of the reasons why people did not vote. This need not be an expensive and time-consuming exercise as most of the information and analysis has already been done. But the Island is entitled to expect that its electoral system meets international standards, addresses the issue of the appalling low level of turnout and is not being settled entirely by the existing Members.
Sir Mark Boleat has held a number of leadership positions in companies, public bodies and charities in Jersey and in the UK. He is senior adviser to the Policy Centre Jersey.
