Plans to modernise Parish Assembly voting in the works

Monday 29 March 2021

Constables are working on changes to the law governing Parish Assemblies that would allow islanders to vote in parish matters, even if they didn’t attend the Assembly.

The Comité des Connétables set up a sub-committee to work on the subject in November 2019, and while its work was delayed by the pandemic, it is hoped changes could be brought before the States Assembly later this year.

Deidre Mezbourian, the Constable of St. Lawrence who chairs the Comité, explained the work had started after an experience she had a couple of years when she called a Parish Assembly and had over 500 people turn up. 

Pictured: Deidre Mezbourian, the Constable of St. Lawrence, chairs the Comité des Connétables.

“Luckily, I had anticipated this would be the case and I had a contingency plan,” she said. “We used the Assembly Hall but also the Assembly in the primary school next door.

“What we are able to do is hold an assembly in different locations as long as those in both or more of these locations can hear everything that is being said and to participate. It worked really well!” 

While the system worked, the Constable said she and her fellow parish representatives had been looking at ways to achieve “greater civic engagement”, noting that technology would play its part in the process.

However, there are still some hurdles to overcome before any potential changes to the legislation governing Parish Assemblies, which currently states you can only vote if you are present at the Parish Assembly, can be brought forward. 

“If somebody is going to vote other than at a Parish Assembly, we may have a problem that is, how do we guarantee that they have had the same information and have heard the same arguments that have been made at the Assembly?” she explained. 

“It’s easy enough to provide a leaflet, but what about what is said at the Assembly, the arguments made on the floor… How are those relayed to you when you are not there?

“Arguments could sway your opinion one way or the other. It may not seem to be a major consideration, but everybody has to hear and have the opportunity to consider the same arguments.

“This is one of the main stumbling blocks to making the provision for somebody to make a vote when they were not present at the Assembly to hear the arguments.”

Pictured: Constable Mezbourian said there are “many things” to consider when it comes to online voting.

While many islanders are calling for online voting, Constable Mezbourian said there are “many things” to consider to ensure it is done in a proper way. 

“The difficulty is in ensuring that there is no pressure on somebody to vote in a particular way,” she said. “We do not know what is happening behind the scenes.”

The Constables of St. Helier, St. Peter and St. Martin, Simon Crowcroft, Richard Vibert and Karen Shenton-Stone, form part of the sub-committee leading the work on the subject. 

Constable Crowcroft, who has been seeking legislative changes to ensure more Parishioners have an opportunity to express their views and vote on important matters - such as the Parish selling land to facilitate the building of the Overdale Hospital - welcomed the Constables’ decision to move forward to get the law changed.

The Attorney General, Mark Temple, has provided the Committee with a legal opinion on the potential changes and Constable Crowcroft said he was pleased with the fact “the Attorney General thought it was something that is reasonable to do."

“The essential thing is we are looking to do is the ability to give more people the opportunity to participate in Parish Assemblies,” he added. 

“At the moment they are held in a building and a vote has to be taken at the end of the meeting. It is very restricted, in particular in St. Helier where there are thousands of people wanting to be heard. As matters stand, it is logistically impossible.”

Pictured: The Constables of St. Helier, St. Martin and St. Peter, Simon Crowcroft, Karen Shenton-Stone and Richard Vibert, form the sub-committee. 

“Although every parish could have the same problem - if every parishioner in St. Mary wanted to come to the Assembly, the Parish Hall would not be big enough - but it’s clear that this is more of a problem for the larger parishes. I know St. Brelade has had the same issue,” he added.

“It looks like we have the green light to proceed with further modernising the way Parish Assemblies are run." 

The sub-committee of Constables is now going to put forward some form of proposals, which will then have to be agreed by the other nine Constables, and then consulted upon.

“Once that process is finished, I suggest it would be good if we could put something before the States perhaps before summer,” Constable Crowcroft said.

Constable Crowcroft said one of the ideas that had been discussed was installing a box in town or polling stations to allow parishioners to register, get a form and vote in a normal way. Opportunities for sick votes to be collected as well as postal votes are also being considered. 

“Obviously, the more you do, the more expenses you are going to incur for the Assembly,” Constable Crowcroft noted. “The Parish Assembly does not cost much at the moment, it’s just a matter of holding a meeting. We would need to establish which decisions would be put to that process, what would trigger that kind of process.

“There are a lot of relatively minor matters voted in a Parish Assembly and it might well be felt that you do not want to go down that route for every matter.

“The more important decisions can be done that in a way that is not limited in terms of geographical and time. The kind of decision I would want as many parishioners to be involved in as possible is for example when St. Helier is asked to sell land to help the hospital once we have got over the difficulties.”