A full year’s delay for the election is not justifiable
DEMOCRACY will be severely undermined in Guernsey this week if our deputies ratify the vote they secured at the last States meeting to remain in power for another year with no democratic mandate to do so. This is an action akin to turkeys voting to delay Christmas, retaining full legislative powers, as well as full salaries and expenses, when many islanders have been furloughed and are struggling to meet day-to-day living expenses. The initial proposal from SACC postponed the election until October, but P&R ‘wanted certainty’ and our deputies voted, and will no doubt do so again, to confirm delaying your free and democratic election, not for four to six months, but until the end of June next year.
Deputies justified their position under emergency powers due to Covid-19. Under emergency powers, all governmental activities have to be ‘proportional’ and decisions need to be substantiated every 30 days, i.e. requiring a re-vote to delay the election every 30 days. This week though, deputies are going to remove this final restraining authority by changing the Reform Guernsey Law 1948.
I am not condemning the actions that have led us out of Covid-19, and a short delay to the June election with continual monitoring was defensible until, as SACC proposed, October. However, now with no new cases of infection in over two weeks and, as we enter phase three of exiting lockdown, a full year’s delay is not proportional, nor is it justifiable.
On pandemic grounds, such an extended election delay is highly questionable. The Spanish Influenza pandemic (1918-1919), which killed 50m. people worldwide (226,000 in the UK and approximately 160 in Guernsey), was at its height in late 1918, and yet the general election still took place in December 1918. Furthermore, South Korea successfully undertook their general election a few weeks ago at the peak of the present pandemic.
Many of us are experiencing economic difficulties, but are the current Assembly the right deputies to lead us to an economic recovery, or will we just see more of the same flip-flop government, indecision, vanity project being enacted, a one-school, two-site model being implemented in the name of infrastructure spending and the rehashing of the ‘same old, same old’ previously failed policies emanating from the incumbent States of Deliberation? Our present deputies have not shown any ‘dynamic, innovative economic thinking’ during their last four years of tenure, so why would this change now? On economic grounds, elections have also not been delayed – only war has postponed elections. The 1916 UK general election took place a month after the Armistice and the 1940 election in July 1945, with suspension in Guernsey of democratic institutions during the Occupation and an election imminently in its aftermath. On both occasions, the UK was in the depth of economic turmoil, as was Guernsey after WWII.
Your deputies this week will undertake to ratify their vote to keep themselves in power for an additional year, and as of 26 June Guernsey will be in the hands of a group of unelected, self-appointed, fully salaried individuals with the right to spend the £650m. they have voted to allocate themselves as a result of Covid-19. Further, many of the current deputies don’t want to be there as they intended to step down, and by-elections will be suspended during the Assembly’s self-proclaimed 12-month extension. They have voted to remain in place with full legislative powers – not ‘caretaker’ authority – with £650m. to spend which, with their track record, is most concerning. Furthermore, the legality of this change in the law is questionable and, at worst, could become a benchmark for further extensions.
The undermining of democratic principles and elections by a sitting government is a very disturbing situation, particularly at this time when we are celebrating our hard-fought freedom, so whether you believe our deputies should reappoint themselves or not, your voice must be heard by our deputies.
GUY ANDERSON
guy.anderson@euporia.co.uk