He was one of six States members who asked to be the committee’s official candidate. P&R’s president, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, said her committee was delighted to see the significant number of deputies willing to step up to serve on such an onerous committee.
She pointed out that as well as the six members who approached P&R, there were also one or two names who had been mentioned publicly as being interested in the role who they didn’t hear from.
Others candidates can be nominated and a contested election is expected.
Deputy St Pier has already made clear that he will be seeking re-election, and Deputy de Sausmarez said she would not be surprised to see others stand from the floor of the Assembly.
Unlike presidents, the rules for committee members do not require the winning candidate to secure 50% of the votes cast, so if there are several candidates the winner could be elected on a minority vote.
P&R said it chose Deputy Niles as its official candidate both because of his extensive connections with the business sector and to ensure a wide range of perspectives around the committee table.
Deputy Niles is a first-term States member, but he was a non-voting member of the Economic Development Committee throughout the previous term. If he secures the seat on P&R, he will be deemed to have resigned from Economic Development, of which he is the vice-president, because the rules do not allow him to serve on both. However, he could retain his seat on the States Trading Supervisory Board, where he is also the vice-president, if he chose to do so.
You need to be logged in to comment.