Carl Meerveld came a close second in the by-election, and despite falling short of winning a seat in the States again, he is hoping to persuade deputies that they need to get moving on signing leases for a wind farm off the coast of Guernsey.
He told Express that he will also be campaigning against GST when the States debate that this summer, and he said we can expect to see his name on the ballot sheet in three years time.
Mr Meerveld came second with 891 votes, just behind Deputy-elect Ross Le Brun who amassed 953 votes.
Forward Guernsey party member Julie Anne Headington was third with 634 votes.
Mr Meerveld admitted he was disappointed to come so close, after polling just outside the top 38 in last summer’s general election.
“There’s always a sense of disappointment, to put so much effort into the campaign to get elected, and to fall just short is always… there’s a twinge of disappointment there, but, I mean, that’s the electoral process and that’s how it works.”
Having been in the States for nine years before losing his seat at the 2025 election, Mr Meerveld has found the past nine months frustrating but he is planning to continue pursuing his passion projects.
“I wouldn’t count me out, because I must admit, the last nine months, I found it particularly frustrating still being passionate about issues I want to see progress, whether it be the development of a wind farm or alternatives to GST and civil service reform, and not being able to be on the inside helping make it happen is very frustrating.
“It’s very frustrating to be passionate about something, and not be able to actually be one of the people who are actually influencing the decision directly. So I wouldn’t say never, regarding me standing again, because in three years time will be another election, and I will see what I’m doing then.”
Mr Meerveld said the island can’t wait three years for progress on one of his projects though and he wants to see action on a wind farm this year.
“It’s something we should be signing contracts on already in my opinion, and it’s interesting because the popularity of all the prospects of renewable energy have gone through this pendulum split. When I was first campaigning for it it was very popular, and there was a lot investment coming into it, but then, of course, Donald Trump got elected in America and it was all ‘drill baby drill we want oil’, but of course, now with the Strait of Hormuz, we’re all saying we need energy dependency and I think renewables are going to come back into focus in a big way as Europe tries to find ways of reducing their dependencies. So this is something I’m going to continue working on and pushing from the outside.
“It doesn’t matter whether I’m a Deputy or not. The things I’m passionate about, such as opposing GST, believe me, when they get around to debating that again I will be campaigning against it whether I’m a Deputy or not, and as I say, in three years time, we’ll see what’s happening then.”