Candidates course prompts 25 to stand for election
UP TO 25 people who attended the recent course giving prospective candidates an insight into what it is like as a States member look set to stand for election in June.
The course was the brainchild of the States Assembly and Constitution Committee and its president Carl Meerveld, pictured, said he was pleased with how it had been received.
By the end of the seven-week course he said the numbers attending had gone from about 70 at the first session to just under 40 at the last one.
‘We came down to a hard core of 37,’ he said.
‘Some people attended every single session. There was a lot of very positive engagement and a lot of insightful questions were asked.’
Not everyone who attended was interested in standing for election, and some people just went along to find out more about how government in Guernsey works.
Although the official course ended on Wednesday, the following day Deputy Meerveld himself took a private session in which he spoke about marketing and manifestos. He said he did this after requests from some of those who went to the regular meetings.
‘I did that in the cafe at St James and about 30 people turned up.’
Previous weeks covered topics including how government works, gave an opportunity to hear from sitting States members about a deputy’s day-to-day life, Guernsey’s finances and one session in the Royal Court following a States’ meeting.
At the end of it Deputy Meerveld suspected that between 20 and 25 of those who took part will be standing for election, and he knew of others who will be standing but were unable to attend the course.
He estimated that there would probably be a total of between 80 and 100 candidates
But even if it had deterred someone from standing, he said the course would have done its job, he said.
‘From Sacc’s perspective, if attendees at the course decided, having heard about the workload and the responsibility, not to put themselves forward then they’ll have made an informed decision.’
He hoped that the next Sacc would build on the idea of the courses and perhaps even have some information sessions during the term.
n Slides used during the course are available at election2025.gg/standing/prospective-candidate-course/
The site will also provide information about preparing manifestos in the coming weeks.
