The States Assembly and Constitution Committee has responded to a report from election observers from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and intends to pick up just two of nine recommendations that they made.
It wants to have a States debate early in the New Year where it will put forward the idea of exploring additional approaches to foster youth engagement, and consider the idea of developing a supervisory authority to oversee complaints and appeals as part of the workstream to establish an independent electoral body.
The remaining ideas have been rejected or are part of other workstreams for other committees.
‘Some recommendations out of the nine were also part of previous recommendations from the previous election so the work for those is already in train,’ said Saac president Sarah Hansmann Rouxel.
‘It is reassuring that there have been few additional recommendations since the previous mission and the committee is on track to progress these key areas.’
Ideas to foster youth participation could include tailored media and social media, civic education programmes in secondary schools, and even dedicated support for young candidates.
Some political issues, particularly centred around voting, form part of PSHE lessons in secondary education, but although Sacc said that more work could be done in schools, it was aware that islanders in their twenties and early thirties were the most difficult age group to reach.
‘Many will constitute Guernsey’s workforce, and it will require an innovative and multifaceted approach to address their lack of participation in Guernsey politics,’ it said.
It agreed that fostering engagement with young people needed to be an ongoing priority, not one isolated to the period immediately before an election, but that would come at a cost.
‘The limitation of resources available to enact initiatives and the difference of Guernsey’s electoral system to the rest of the world should be acknowledged as barriers that do not have a quick fix solution,’ the committee added.
‘The requirement for voters to consider a large number of candidates and vote for up to 38 could prevent some young people from engaging in the process because they do not understand the voting system, or it is too time-consuming.
'Although this issue does not solely affect young people, it may contribute to lack of engagement from first-time voters who feel overwhelmed by the voting process.’
Sacc has already been instructed to develop a comprehensive legal framework to include rules on parties and campaign conduct, and to investigate setting up an independent electoral body to oversee elections, and would consider extending its remit to political parties under this recommendation. But it warned that establishing an electoral body was a significant project and would need a budget.
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