It was about people, not parties, says party leader

VOTERS went for people not parties. That was the verdict of the leader of the Guernsey Party, which saw six of its nine candidates win seats.

All smiles from Aiden Matthews who sees the election of newcomers such as himself as a desire for change. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 28780180)

Deputy-elect Mark Helyar, the leader of the party, said: ‘I really trust the electorate having seen this. They’ve been choosing people not parties, I think, if we’re honest about that.

‘We had a lot of very similar policies to some of the other parties and I think the Alliance Party was wiped out. So I think we’ve done incredibly well.’

Looking forward, he stressed the Assembly had to be more collegiate.

‘The island absolutely demands it. People are fed up with the bickering and the in-fighting. They want people to just get on with the job.’

Simon Vermeulen was another of The Guernsey Party members to be elected. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 28780203)

The deputy-elect, who came fourth in terms of votes cast, added: ‘We’re a group of people that have a meeting of minds on all sorts of different issues. But there are going to be times when we disagree with one another and nobody’s going to fall out over that.

‘We’re going to try and be nice to each other, and we’re going to try and be nice to everybody else as well.’

For the Guernsey Partnership of Independents, its treasurer and Deputy-elect Heidi Soulsby said its approach had worked despite the ‘odds’.

‘We really only had a very short run-in to explain what we were about. But I think it gelled. It was what people wanted to hear. They wanted to end the divisiveness. They wanted people to work together. I’m really pleased,’ she said.

She came second in the island-wide vote while its chairman, Gavin St Pier, topped the poll. It fielded 21 candidates, with 10 of them winning a seat.

Expressing delight at her and Deputy-elect St Pier’s success, she added: ‘Clearly, we would have liked to have got everybody through. But I’m really pleased with some of the new blood that we will have in there.’

Heidi Soulsby was re-elected and thought the Guernsey Partnership of Independent, of which she was a member, worked. (Picture by Sophie Rabey, 28780168)

The returning deputy also said she was relieved the election was over after ‘quite a bit of negative campaigning’.

The Alliance Party fielded 11 candidates but failed to win a single seat.

Independent deputy-elect Aidan Matthews said he didn’t think he would get in but noted ‘a big swing’ towards independent and new candidates. ‘This expresses the desire for change, and for the States to pay attention and listen to what people want from their deputies,’ he said.

Sasha Kazantseva-Miller was another successful Guernsey Party of Independents member. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 28780125)

Deputy-elect Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, of the Guernsey Partnership, said being in a party had been positive. ‘The parties were created not just for the election. Most deputies share a great passion for the work they do. We want to continue sharing knowledge developed with people in the States,’ she said.