Island wide voting on the agenda

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The States Assembly and Constitution Committee has issued a report on the possible introduction of island-wide voting in Guernsey.

THE States will debate the issue of island-wide voting at its meeting in January.

The States Assembly and Constitution Committee has issued an early report on the matter for public discussion.

It details a number of options which could be pursued towards island-wide voting, but asks the States only to note the report and direct the committee to continue its work towards introducing a new system for elections.

‘The Committee hopes that the publication of the report will generate open discussion within the wider community,’ said committee chairman Deputy Ivan Rihoy.

‘It is hoped by the conclusion of the deliberations of the Assembly that the possible electoral systems outlined in this report will have been narrowed down to guide the Committee in the preparation of detailed proposals with firm recommendations on the preferred option(s) for consideration by the States in the normal way.’

If it is given the go-ahead to investigate further, the committee intends to report back to the States by July 2009.

The report notes that there are very few jurisdictions in the world where the entire electorate elect every Member of Parliament. Where that does happen, it tends to be in the third world, or for a parliament with a limited number of members elected on a party political basis, such as Gibraltar. It also applies in Alderney, where the electorate choose five of the 10 members every two years.

The report considers options including:

The present system

The present system with fewer districts

Island-wide election – 45 seats – 1 election

Island-wide election – Quarter of the members elected annually

Island-wide election – Half of the members elected biennially

Island-wide election for a proportion of the seats only

Parish representation for a proportion of the seats only

A golden vote.


The report also considers reducing the number of members in the States, but refers only to a modest change from 45 to about 40 elected members.


It also looks at the use of a single transferable vote and electronic counting of votes.

The UK’s Electoral Reform Society says that a simple island-wide vote could only work if there were political parties or electoral blocs, or if there were fewer seats to be filled – it indicates less than 20 – and so recommends alternative models based on present electoral districts.

The States is asked to note the report, and then the committee will return with detailed proposals on election and constitution of the States of Deliberation from 2012