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A former Senator has launched a petition calling for all politicians to be elected on an island-wide mandate at the next election after June.
The island's new electoral system divides the island into nine districts.
Ben Shenton, who says he is not standing in the 2022 election, says that the chosen electoral system is a backwards step because no politician will have a mandate from every islander.
“Why should people in the town get to elect four Deputies, while some country parishes can only elect three?” he said.
“If you want to support a political party but they don’t put up any candidates in your district, do you not vote? If elected by a district, your mandate is from a minority of islanders.”
Former Senator Ben Shenton wants to see all politicians, save the Constables, elected on an island-wide basis.
He adds: “What do you do if you want to represent the whole island? Only one district will elect the Chief Minister. If a policy is great for the island but detrimental to the Chief Minister’s district, where will loyalties lie – to the island or to their electorate?”
The former Health Minister’s petition calls for all districts to be extinguished, more parish responsibilities to be passed to the Constables and all other elected representatives to be elected island-wide, as is now the case in Guernsey.
In an Opinion piece for Express, Mr Shenton adds that he was also spurred into action by recent events in his home parish of Grouville, where deputies from St. Martin and St. Helier are proposing that fields in Grouville are built on.
Guernsey moved to an island-wide voting system for the first time for its 2020 election. The island became one electoral district, with islanders able to vote for up to 38 candidates.
The successful candidate with the highest number of votes was former Chief Minister Deputy Gavin St. Pier with just short of 14,000, while the 38th individual to win a seat was Deputy Carl Meerveld with 6,477.
There was a record turnout for the new style of election, with 80% of eligible voters making their way to the polls.
Mr Shenton's petition can be found HERE, and his comment article is HERE.
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