An election needs to be held at the first safe and available opportunity

Juxtapose this with the fact that many islanders gave up their Easter holidays (probably will give up their summer ones too) and continued working during this same emergency period. Gives one pause for thought – however, I digress.

The States will be in session and deputies representing their constituents will vote on laws, regulations and amendments, etc. But wait a minute. Who are they representing? Their term of office and their mandate to represent us ceased in May. I say again, who are they representing? They are either representing themselves or telling themselves that they are representing us. But are they representing us if we haven’t voted them in for this extended period?

Mmm, quite a conundrum, and it gets worse (reminiscent of a catch-22 situation). What of any votes or decisions that they may make from now on? Are they legitimate? If not, how can they be binding? And if they are not binding, surely their deliberations are redundant. If so, what is the point of them meeting, and why are they meeting?

One thing that they may be doing is enjoying the luxury of an extended term of office in which to progress any unfinished business (dare I say pet projects, etc?). From whatever angle we may view the present situation, it cannot be regarded as edifying. What would our view be of this had it taken place in a developing country?

However, we now come back to the subject of these decisions. If they are not (or are not seen to be) 100% legitimate, what are we to make of them? Will the next States Assembly, with their mandate from the people, need to go back through all these decisions and either overturn or ratify them? Surely this would be an unnecessary burden to place on our new representatives.

So, how to resolve the conundrum? There is only one way. An election needs to be held at the first safe and available opportunity. In the meantime, deputies must be aware of the legitimacy of their questionable status and as such refrain from taking any decisions that could be postponed until they may be deliberated upon by the newly-elected House.

I realise that I have unfairly lumped all deputies together, for which I apologise. Not all deputies will be happy with this situation. I understand that some had decided not to stand again. These are now forced to extend their term of office beyond their expected time. Not an ideal situation for them either.

Finally, is it not bad enough that 2020 will be remembered as the year of the ‘Covid-19 Pandemic’? Let it not also be remembered as the year of the ‘Stolen Election’.

JOHN GILLSON

Les Tagarins,

Bas Courtils,

St Saviour’s,

Guernsey.