Lee Van Katwyk recently claimed that at least three States members were considering resigning their seats in the Assembly, which would trigger by-elections to maintain the number of deputies at 38, ahead of the next general election in 2029.
He told the Guernsey Press Politics Podcast that he had now written to the States Assembly & Constitution Committee asking it to propose scrapping the need for by-electionsm and was prepared to use a requete to force a debate on the issue.
‘I am absolutely prepared to undertake that myself, if I have to, with another six deputies,’ said Deputy Van Katwyk.
‘If the official answer from Sacc is not that they are willing to also tackle this and they’re not concerned about the greater democracy, then absolutely I’ll take it on myself.’
The by-election at which Ross Le Brun was elected as a deputy last week had a price tag of about £75,000, which was reduced from an earlier estimate of £200,000 when Sacc scaled back on some promotional activities under pressure from deputies who initially wanted the vote cancelled to save money.Fewer than one in 10 adults voted, as turnout dropped to 17.32%, the lowest in any by-election of modern times.
Deputy Van Katwyk was originally opposed to holding that by-election, before the States debate persuaded him to back it, but he was determined to prevent any more for both financial and democratic reasons.
‘We are in a cost of living crisis and we are in a democratic crisis as well,’ he said.
‘Voter apathy is on the rise. What I am really keen to do is protect the greater democracy rather than the smaller democracy of having a by-election every time somebody resigns.
‘What I’d like to see is the States operating with one fewer deputy, two fewer deputies, even three fewer at this time to give some confidence back to voters.
‘When we have a by-election and fewer than 5,000 people turn out, we don’t want that sort of voter apathy to turn into disenfranchisement further down the line, when it’s a lot harder to get people back and engaged.
‘We’re talking about democracy here and safeguarding it for the future.’
When disgraced former deputy Jonathan Le Tocq’s resignation was approved in December, a much greater number of States members indicated they would be willing to vote against the proposed by-election than ended up voting against it when it was agreed by the Assembly in February.
Deputy Van Katwyk believed that showed it was much harder to win a debate to scrap by-elections once one or more deputies had already resigned, and candidates had started to come forward to replace them.
For that reason, he wanted Sacc to act quickly on the issue or tell him it was not going to so that he could lead the debate himself.
He said it would be ‘unfair to name names’ when asked which three deputies were considering becoming the first to resign for a quarter of a century, excluding Le Tocq. He confirmed he was not one of them and was already ‘eyeing a second term’ having been elected for the first time, as one of the Assembly’s youngest members, last summer.
‘I’m looking at an eight-year plan for what I’m developing. The way I see it, it’s a four-year job with a potential extension of another four years, if I’m lucky enough to get voted back in next time,’ he said.
Although resignations in local politics have been rare, Deputy Van Katwyk said he was not surprised to find out that some of his colleagues were thinking about departing so soon after the general election.
‘I think this is just the modern world that we live in,’ he said.
‘Thirty or 40 years ago, careers would span a lifetime. You stayed in a role.
‘Today, it’s much more of a chop-and-change sort of world, it seems, and I guess that’s filtering through into politics.
‘I actually respect anybody who does resign because I would much rather see somebody resign than be paid and not fulfilling the role.’
Earlier in the term, Sacc won deputies’ support to scrap the previous Assembly’s plan to require three vacancies before holding a by-election.
The committee is currently reviewing the size of the Assembly and recommendations are expected before the end of the political term.
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