Richard van Vliet, who started the online petition on Monday, said he did not think an estimated cost of at least £200,000 was justified and was heartened to see that many deputies seemed to be taking the same point of view.
This followed Deputy Marc Laine stating that he believed he only needed the backing of one or two more deputies to be able to force a vote, and win it, on whether to hold a by-election to replace disgraced former chief minister Jonathan Le Tocq.
‘From the position we were in last week where only eight deputies seemed to not want the by-election to where we are now is fantastic,’ he said. ‘It seems that financial sense might actually prevail.
By 6pm yesterday the petition had attracted more than 600 signatures, with backing for it increasing by more than 200% over the course of the day.
‘It’s been heart-warming to see that support and I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to read the petition and vote,’ said Mr van Vliet. ‘I was hoping for 250 and to have already doubled that is superb. With the extra publicity I’m hoping we can reach at least 750.’
But a former States member said he thinks that the island should not seek to dodge the by-election because of convenience or concerns about the cost of it.
Former Castel deputy Chris Green, who served in the States from 2012 to 2020, said he understood concerns about the indicated costs of the by-election.
‘But the bottom line is, the States decided last term to only have a by-election if there were three vacancies, and then one of the first decisions of this new States was to decide that, actually, no, we’ll have a by-election if there’s one vacancy.
‘It’s pretty standard practice in proper parliaments to have a by-election if a member ceases to be in the role for whatever reason. I’m just not clear why people think that we should be different.’
Mr Green said that he believed the emphasis should be on the States Assembly & Constitution Committee to look to reduce the projected costs of the election, rather than pressure being brought to cancel it.
‘Obviously I don’t want it to cost £200,000. I think that’s ridiculous,’ he said.
‘But if they can mitigate the cost downwards, make sure it’s a free and fair election, but do it in a cost-effective way, I think that’s preferable. I would also make the point that when there was a referendum in 2018, part of the question was to have 38 deputies, and if we’re going to change the constitution of the States by simply not holding a by-election, I just don’t think that’s quite right.
‘I suppose my instinct is that we shouldn’t just be junking fundamental principles like holding a by-election if a deputy ceases to be in office just because of ad hoc factors or concerns about costs. If we are really concerned about costs we should be looking much more fundamentally about the cost base of the States, rather than on a one-off cost, which is what our by-election is.’
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