Guernsey Press

Recount ‘validates island-wide voting’

CONSISTENT ranking results were expected from those who submitted a recount request.

Published
Fergus Dunlop was at the declaration in the early hours of Friday and at the Royal Court yesterday to see the result of the recount posted. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 28779982)

One aim was to test the new island-wide voting system.

Ranking 39th, Fergus Dunlop, pictured right, was 123 votes shy of the original count yet did not submit a request.

He attended the recount declaration on Sunday at the Royal Court, as did candidate Gordon Young.

‘This is a great moment for Guernsey,’ said Mr Dunlop.

‘We had an 80% voting turnout of the registered electorate. That will stand Guernsey in good stead for the next five years.’

Election team members were given appreciation.

‘These are civil servants, volunteers and Jurats who all understand that the possible aspersions which could be cast on the recount, which is why they all went.’

Catherine Hall, Pierre Ehmann, Scott Ogier and Garry Collins submitted the request.

Mr Collins said: ‘It’s a brand new system, and like anything you live and learn. People can now have faith in the system, which has been verified.

‘Perhaps a 2% margin is too high for an island-wide system. Formerly with parish voting this was around 800 people, but now that is around 1,300. To get 6,000-odd votes was just delightful, nobody knew where the bar was.’

Mr Ehmann reiterated Mr Collins’ view that it was important to test the robustness of the system.

He apologised to the volunteers who had had to give up time over the weekend.

‘But I think the recount has proven what a solid system it is, that’s good for our island democracy.’

Ranking 38th, sitting deputy Carl Meerveld said: ‘It was very unlikely that you’d see a swing of over 120 votes on the recount. Fergus Dunlop recognised this and congratulated me magnanimously.

‘It has validated island-wide voting and the original result. One can always expect slight movement. My only regret is the extra work and cost.’

The recount also recorded 17 blank papers and 137 spoilt papers. That compares to the original count where 21 were recorded as blank while 66 were recorded as spoilt.

. The recount also highlighted that two members of the Alliance Party Guernsey were given the incorrect totals originally.

Elaine Mahy received 2,895 votes, not the 1,897 from the original declaration.

Geoffrey Mahy received 1,895 votes but had been given 2,762.

‘In the declaration of result published at 1.50am on 9 October, regrettably the results of two candidates with the same surname were transcribed the wrong way around,’ said a States spokesman.

‘This was picked up during the recount and the results published today are accurate.

‘We have expressed our sincere apologies to the two candidates for the original error.’