Hundreds watched the hustings either in person at Les Beaucamps High School or on a live-stream, with a dozen questions from the floor covering subject matters from GST to sentencing guidelines.
Audience member Mike Read said that having a hustings was useful for voters as there are limited opportunities to hear from candidates ahead of the by-election.
‘I think it is important to hear them answer on their feet,’ he said.
‘There are only limited opportunities to listen to them and we only have one vote.’
‘They come from a spectrum of backgrounds and I think the majority of them were honest when they didn’t know the answers. It was a good discussion and a wide variety of issues came up.’
Watch the full recording of the hustings or click through for the timestamps for each question
Former deputy Elis Bebb said that he had been pleased to attend a traditional hustings, 10 years after the last time one was held.
‘It’s refreshing to see a traditional hustings again and I hope that it brings to mind what was good about the old electoral system,’ he said.
‘The only thing that I found very disappointing was the last time I was here for the Castel hustings, there was standing room only. Today there was still some seating and for me that shows that we have the wrong electoral system.’
He said that he attended the hustings with three potential votes – over the course of the evening he dropped one, but added another.
Each candidate had 45 seconds to answer each question, a format which candidate Carl Meerveld said he liked.
‘I think it was excellent. I particularly liked the format, as when candidates are allowed to answer at length you don’t fit as many questions in, so it enables a broader range of subjects,’ he said.
‘I think it is important for voters to see how candidates function under pressure and it’s been broadcast online so people can even go back and view later.
‘I’m very grateful to the Press for organising this.’
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