REGULAR readers of these pages will already be noticing frequent mentions of the forthcoming elections, which are still a full half-year away. In some cases, they are already being used as a justification for non-delivery, as there is apparently not enough time to get something done.
With that argument, a four-year term of office gets cut by 25%, as the first six months are rapidly written off as a “bedding in” period; and the term is abruptly curtailed six months early, as by that point any useful time has elapsed.
Voters should be wary of those time-stealers, and ask why the issue of concern to them was given such a low priority that it ran out of time?
The second downside in firing the starting pistol on the election period too early is that voters will just become even more fatigued with the whole process – if that is still possible, given the evidence from recent turnouts.
There is a strong argument to say that of all the problems currently facing Jersey, the pathetic number of people who actually cast a vote is the greatest; and one which anyone connected with public life in Jersey has a democratic responsibility to help with.
This week States Members will discuss, amongst other things, whether political “movements” – a word which seems to mean more than a “group”, but less than a “party” – should be asked to clearly state where they get their money from.
In fact, the proposal would apply to all “…political groups who declare a shared political agenda (to include all political movements, collaborations or campaigns).”
Given the time, it would be a voluntary system – but the point is that the debate already has all the hallmarks of one where a fine principle disappears without trace into a morass of process.
The Privileges and Procedures committee has said it can’t reach a consensus on it; and so referred it to the Electoral Authority…who said while they agreed with the principle of full transparency, they were not certain this was the right way of delivering it.
Readers with experience of States debates on electoral matters may feel a cold shudder at those remarks.
To be fair the Electoral Authority does say it will look at whether this year’s nomination forms can leave space for a declaration on affiliation, but that clearly wouldn’t deal with the point about the source of funding.
If new political groups can stimulate more islanders to cast their vote, we should encourage them; but we do need to know where the money comes from.
