A focus for electoral reform
The amendment may be coming from two of the most influential members of the States, but would it be right that the whole electoral system could be significantly changed on the back of a far-reaching amendment from Deputies St Pier and Ferbrache?
While that doesn’t feel great, what the two senior members have done is picked up one of eight fairly low-key recommendations from the Scrutiny Management Committee’s review of island-wide voting, sharpened it up, and turned a rather bland recommendation into a proposal that really means something, and one that will certainly get members thinking.
Scrutiny proposed ‘to consider a reduction in the number of votes available to each voter in time for the 2025 election’.
Shifting that on to facilitate rolling elections, with half the States elected every two years to serve a four-year term, for example, would introduce the opportunity to retain some continuity within the Assembly, create more flexibility in reshaping committees every couple of years, and will hold some attraction.
And with some senior political clout behind the proposal too, it may have a fair chance of success.
The method feels a far from a perfect way to go about things, but it’s certainly creating a better starting position to launch a meaningful discussion about the future of our electoral system.