I want an IW voting system that works

The Hadley requete to elect 45 members on the same day simply would not have worked. It would have created the most onerous election process in the western hemisphere.

First of all, voters would have had to wade through 80-90 manifestos just to form an opinion on the candidates. Hustings meetings would have been impossible due to the sheer number of candidates. Voters would have had to endure lengthy queues maybe lasting hours, due to the fact people would have had to cast so many votes. New candidates would have been at a distinct disadvantage.

The top half of those elected would have had a massive number of votes while those who were only just successful could be elected on fewer than 50 votes. If we had adopted this ill-thought-out version of island-wide voting, the results would have been chaos. It would have caused voter apathy on a scale never before seen in Guernsey.

An amendment was laid for a golden vote system, which I voted for. We also had an amendment for a referendum on island-wide voting, which I voted for, and I also seconded an amendment by John Gollop to have a quarter of deputies elected on an island-wide basis.

You can imagine my astonishment when the Guernsey Press accused me of a U-turn on island-wide voting. I believe islanders want an electoral system that allows them to vote for candidates outside their district but they still wish to retain a parish link.

The golden-vote amendment and the elect-a-quarter-of-deputies-island-wide amendments were defeated. That left the States with the situation that if the Hadley requete had been successful, we would have had to spend tens of thousands of pounds on a referendum to choose between an island-wide voting system that would have been a disaster or the status quo.

It really was the worst plan since Baldrick organised his indoor firework display in the regimental ammunition store.

A vote against the Hadley requete was not a vote against island-wide voting, it was rather a vote for common sense. The Guernsey Press headline that deputies U-turned on island-wide voting was misleading at best.

The Comment page of the Guernsey Press two days earlier had stated 'the Hadley requete was no way for the States to debate the island-wide voting issue'. That was correct.

So what have we learnt from all this? Well, the States do seem to have an appetite for a referendum. With there being no progress made on this issue by the Assembly for 12 years, it might be the most pragmatic solution. If we don't resolve this issue in a definitive way, the States will be heading for another groundhog day debate in the future.

DEPUTY ARRUN WILKIE,

arrun.wilkie@deputies.gov.gg.