Guernsey Press

Amendment seeks to give political parties more money

POLITICAL PARTIES could have a stronger say in Guernsey’s first island-wide general election, with discussion already under way about how much money they should receive.

Published
Deputy Carl Meerveld and his fellow Islanders Association founding member Deputy Marc Leadbeater want to increase the amount of money political parties can spend on campaigning at next year’s general election from £9,000 to £45,000. (Picture by Sophie Rabey, 26554139)

Islanders Association founding members deputies Carl Meerveld and Marc Leadbeater want to increase to up to £45,000 the permitted campaigning budgets of parties.

The States’ Assembly & Constitution Committee wants the maximum budget for parties in the run-up to the election to be limited to a maximum of £9,000.

It is one of a number of proposals put forward by Sacc which will be considered by the States at its meeting next week.

The move to island-wide voting has required a massive overhaul of the election laws, including how to regulate political parties which may be formed as a result.

Sacc has suggested that candidates should be allowed to assign only 50% of their electoral expenditure to a political party, but the total amount pooled by the party should not exceed £9,000.

For deputies Meerveld and Leadbeater that amount is not enough and their amendment to the policy letter seeks to increase any parties’ budget to five times a single candidate’s permitted electoral expenditure.

To reach that expenditure limit, an association or party would require a minimum of 10 candidates.

In the explanatory note to the amendment, Deputy Meerveld suggests that it would be unjust and undemocratic to stymie political parties.

‘The proposers of this amendment believe it is unreasonable to limit the expenditure of large groups to the same level as an individual as this unduly limits the ability of associations or parties to promote the benefits of their policies in accordance with the guidelines and principles laid down by the Venice Commission and the accepted norms in other democracies.’

A different amendment by deputies Mary Lowe and Victoria Oliver aims to achieve the opposite.

They want the maximum spend by political parties to be pegged at £2,300.

That was the limit set for the 2016 general election.