There was a good audience turn-out for the first full hustings session of the island-wide voting era, staged by the Guernsey Press at Les Beaucamps High School, and a full stage of candidates.
Over two hours plenty of questions were taken from the floor and posed to the candidates by senior reporter Matt Fallaize.
‘We were pleased with the engagement both in public and online. I hope that staging an event will help people to make their minds up for next Wednesday,’ said editor James Falla.
Watch the full recording from last night’s by-election hustings
Matt Fallaize, senior reporter:
The by-election contest for a single deputy's seat, now into its final week, remains wide open and impossible to call.
I left last night's Guernsey Press hustings thinking that the winner will probably be one of four candidates but that two others are in with an outside chance.
Hundreds watched the hustings, either live or online, but interest in the by-election remains predictably subdued.
When the result is declared late in the evening next Wednesday, or possibly in the early hours of Thursday, the number of votes cast will be almost as interesting and possibly as consequential as who is elected.
The last time there was a by-election, in a parish, 35% of eligible voters turned out. A very low turnout could be the final encouragement the States Assembly & Constitution Committee needs to propose another referendum on our electoral system.
Some of the candidates themselves could be campaigning more vigorously. In an election as wide open as this, with no obvious front-runner, a late injection of enthusiasm, energy and passion could yet separate one of the candidates from the rest.
There is nothing wrong with intensely wanting to get into the States and I'm not alone in still looking for the candidate who does.
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