Parishes short on nominees to fill key roles at elections

There are douzenier positions vacant in St Peter’s and Castel, while St Andrew’s had no nominees for a vacant constable role and is a douzenier short.

St Andrew’s senior constable Martin Thwaite will be standing down after serving four four-year terms, though he will remain on the douzaine.

‘It is disappointing that no one was seeking to become a constable,’ he said.

‘However, we are drawing from a small pool in St Andrew’s to fill all our spaces.’

To stand, nominees must be on the electoral roll in their parish. Mr Thwaite said they had faced issues as the electoral roll had closed on 15 October due to next year’s general election.

‘A number of people picked up forms and enquired about becoming douzeniers, only to find they or proposers or seconders were not on the electoral roll,’ he said.

‘I believe a number of other parishes had the same issue.’

As he understood it the electoral roll would not open again until December, so it would be well into the new year before they could look for candidates.

However, St Peter Port will see a contested election with two candidates from the douzaine for the role of constable and an eight-way contest for six douzaine seats.

Constable Diane Mitchell said she was pleased to have so many nominees.

‘We have got some really great candidates and it’s going to be a proper election and a bit of a bun fight,’ she said.

‘The two standing for constable are both excellent, Ken Acott has been a douzenier since January and Chris Nicolle has been one for two years.

‘Chris has been heavily involved in Liberation and Ken has lots of business experience. Frankly if we could have three constables, I would take both of them.’

As well as returning douzeniers, the nominations for the douzaine include three other parishioners, only one of whom had been involved with the parish before.

‘Odette Duerden has been a douzenier before but Rachael McCutcheon and Joyce Tonkinson are both new,’ said Mrs Mitchell. ‘I’ve just been looking at their manifestos myself which are available on our website.’

With contested seats, those elections will not take place on Wednesday but are set to be deferred until 20 November with parishioners from St Peter Port able to vote either at Beau Sejour or the Constables’ Office.

• Parish meetings take place in all parishes from 7.30pm on Wednesday.