Quiz the candidates

Monday 15 August 2016

Tonight, you’ve got your first chance to quiz the eleven candidates standing for Senator.

The hustings circus starts at St Saviour’s Parish Hall at 19:30.

Two hours have been set aside for the would-be politicians to tell you why they want your vote, and for you to put specific questions to them.

With so many candidates it’s being proposed speeches are cutback to 3 minutes. That means parishioners will have heard from all the potential politicians in just over half an hour.

The rest of the time will be taken up by questions. Again it’s proposed to keep answering time to a minimum – two minutes per candidate – so as many questions as possible can be got through.

There could be up to 15 hustings and a drop session held in a 16 day window in the run up to election day. In addition to the tradition 12 parish hustings, extra meetings for the farmers, unions and the island’s youth are being considered.

The idea behind the ‘drop in session’ is that all the politicians will be in one place at the same time and you’ll be able to have a one-to-one with them. It’s proposed to do this at St Paul’s Centre on a Saturday close to election day from 11:00 to around 15:00.

The eleven candidates standing for the vacant job include one current States member Deputy Sam Mezec; four former politicians: Guy de Faye, Sarah Ferguson, Nick Le Cornu, and John Young; and six newcomers: Alvin Aaron, Mike Dun, Christian May, Stevie Ocean, Mary O'Keeffe-Burgher, and Hugh Raymond.

The post has fallen vacant because of the shock resignation of Senator Zoe Cameron. She quit in frustration saying it was impossible to get anything done, claiming she’d been cold-shouldered by the Council of Ministers.

Election day is Wednesday 7^th September. The term of office will last until spring 2018.