Redirected from GG 2020: Regarding the 2020 Guernsey General Election…
Often in past general elections in several districts or constituencies there were twice the number of candidates for the number of seats, and no parties so each candidate stood as an independent. This was all changing with one island-wide constituency, and you can probably discern that I didn’t really think it was the wisest of moves. Nevertheless – also especially because I found myself on the committee tasked with bringing this electoral system into operation – we did our best to sew the silk purse. Each voter would have up to 38 votes at his or her disposal now. We feared a voting slip with 80 or 90 candidates on it. In the event there were 119! The ballot paper resembled er… well nothing much else really. Candidates’ names would be presented in alphabetical order. I did momentarily consider changing my name to Aaron Aardvark. Le Tocq was almost slap bang in the middle of the three long columns of names.
The Electoral Reform Society announced in advance that Guernsey was probably about to hold “the strangest election in the world” and commented further that it was “likely to be be a difficult and overwhelming experience for voters”. Nevertheless, the election spurned some other firsts for Guernsey: we had the highest recorded sign-up for the electoral roll; the turnout (normally between 60-70% for a Guernsey General Election) rocketed to 80%; we also saw the emergence of a number of parties and public groupings for the first time. The Guernsey Party fielded 9 brand new candidates with a right-of-centre corporate agenda, the Alliance Party (with an eclectic political agenda) put up 11 newcomers, and the Partnership of Independents brought together 21 otherwise non-partisan candidates (a mix of existing, old and new) whose alignment was more focused on values than specific policies, but under the rules governing funding all three groups had to register as parties.
Having consistently described myself as an independent, a pragmatist, one who seeks to find a ‘third way’ between extremes, I found myself ill at ease with the prospects of this election. I understood fully that some form of party alignment could help voters to work out who amongst the plethora of candidates could work best together for the good of the whole community – something which was always a weakness in the old system as you would only realistically attempt to work out such things after an election during the first few months of a new Assembly. And this was often behind the scenes, hidden from public view. Similarly I thought of how I might feel as a brand new candidate, standing for the first time in an election where I had virtually no chance of getting my views out to every voter. Under the old system, with districts of between 7000-9000 people) you could at least knock on doors, hold community hustings and expect to have a fair chance of getting your profile known. Had islandwide elections been the norm in the election of 2000, I am pretty certain I would not have been elected. In this election there were several newcomers I wanted to support. Now there was a chance to help empower the electorate, but to do so meant either forming or aligning ourselves with a party. So I aligned myself with the Partnership of Independents and encouraged the others to do the same.
With hindsight, this may not have been the wisest decision from a personal perspective; some analysis would indicate that I lost as many votes as I gained from the association.
But you live and learn.
In the unlikely event... 