Despite the Guernsey Partnership of Independents being cleared on Wednesday of any wrongdoing related to a breach of election spending rules, several candidates have still labelled the contest unbalanced with plenty of underhand tactics.
Independent candidate Adam Martel said he had done his best to follow the rules but felt information being given out, such as the official candidate guidance, which had to be revised following a discrepancy between it and the election law, was confusing and any attempt to clarify was difficult.
‘It’s hard to get my questions to someone within the election team with the right clarity and understanding of what’s going on,’ he said.
‘That makes me even more confused and that’s the people I’m going to, to get advice from.
‘There’s so much going on and as a first-time candidate I wanted to ensure that I was following the rules but with the parties continually promoting themselves and some even with government-issued laptops it’s unfair.
‘Us independent candidates can’t compete with that and already we’re on the back foot in terms of what we thought the spending rules were. It has been a fiasco.’
He added that his own candidacy promotion had received some notice.
‘There had been lots of promotion of parties already and I didn’t want to get left behind, so I also set up some,’ he said.
‘I set them up to go on the 1 September but for some reason it went earlier and on the back of this somebody contacted me and was asking me questions, it made me question it and it seemed tactical to get me as an independent to pull out, thinking I’m not following the rules.
‘The funny thing for me is that Gavin [St Pier as part of the Guernsey Partnership of Independents] and Mark [Helyar as part of the Guernsey Party] have approached me to essentially join their parties. There’s lots of mind games and I appreciate that’s politics but I want to stay true to myself and the electorate.’
Gordon Young, another independent candidate, agreed with Mr Martel that the election guidance for candidates, especially for first-timers was confusing and was adamant that there was something more going on in relation to the spending rules.
‘In my opinion they broke the rules, everybody knows that officially you can’t pay for promotional material to be published in the press before the regulated period and for those in the party who have been deputies, they should know better.
‘I’m not happy with it but the election must continue.’
The law, however, does not prohibit campaigning outside of the regulated period, which begins when nominations open on 1 September and runs until the election day.
Confusion arose from the guide to candidates saying promotional material could not be used. Complaints arose after the GPI ran a full page advert in the Guernsey Press.
A spokesperson for the Alliance Party, which is led by Barry Weir, said the ‘fiasco’ had highlighted the issue of a lack of consultation and listening skills.
‘We find it quite extraordinary that the States seems to have changed the guidance to fit with what Gavin St Pier and his party have already done,’ the spokesperson said.
‘As a party, we recognised that the rules could be misconstrued so we took advice from the States before proceeding with spending.
‘Our concern is that when people have been in power there’s a danger they become complacent and think they can do what they want and aren’t answerable for their actions.
‘In truth, we feel that it’s helped highlight the issue of a general problem of failing to seek proper consultation and wanting to listen to advice - the education fiasco surrounding the new schools model was a perfect example of not listening to the people.
‘This episode is another example of why Guernsey needs real political change.’
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