Guernsey solves years-old Jersey problem overnight

Friday 12 October 2018

A problem that has confounded Jersey for at least the last 20 years has been resolved by Guernsey, seemingly overnight.

Yesterday saw the Sarnians vote for massive electoral change in their first ever referendum, to bring in island-wide voting for all politicians - and unlike in Jersey, they won't be throwing out the people's decision.

The change, which is yet to be worked out in practice, will see the island’s 38 deputies elected by all islanders, rather than standing across seven districts. 

With a 45.1% turnout, it means the result is binding, meaning that the island’s government is obligated to bring forward proposals to officially make the change happen.

It seems the politicians are wasting no time in getting that done either, with the first meeting on the matter scheduled to take place this afternoon. 

Electoral reform is something that Jersey’s States Assembly has grappled with for many years, with a shake-up of how voting currently works touted as the answer to solving politicians elected with a small mandate and, in part, solving voter apathy. 

Voter turnout in the #gsyreferendum is 45.1%. The threshold has been met and the winning option will be implemented.

— Guernsey Referendum (@gsyreferendum) October 11, 2018

Like Guernsey, Jersey attempted a referendum in 2014 in order to achieve that, but the results were never implemented.

In the end, Option B won – dividing St. Helier into two districts and creating six new electoral districts with just one kind of States Member. Parish constables would have remained under the system.

However, the result was not binding and the result was ultimately discarded. 

In contrast to Guernsey, however, Jersey's turnout was much lower at just 26%.

In a tweet following yesterday’s result, the island’s only political party, Reform Jersey, was critical of this.

Guernsey gets 45% turnout in a mid-term referendum. We struggle to get 40% at a general election, even with reduced numbers on the electoral roll. We need serious reform to restore confidence in our electoral system.

— Reform Jersey (@ReformJersey) October 11, 2018

They commented: “Guernsey gets 45% turnout in a mid-term referendum. We struggle to get 40% at a general election, even with reduced numbers on the electoral roll. We need serious reform to restore confidence in our electoral system.”