FOCUS: Will it be time to party on 22 June?

And in the post-war years, the Jersey Democratic Movement faced the Jersey Progressive Party, adopting political adjectives in their titles that are not dissimilar to today’s party names.

But like then, next month’s election will be a hybrid of independent and party candidates, and only time will tell if this polling day will be any different to the rest. Will it be ‘stick’ or ‘fold’ for a full party system this time?

Or is this simply the first step on an evolution to party politics? Or will the project stumble at its first hurdle? Again, time will tell.

With all candidates declaring their intention to stand on Wednesday, we now know that there are 37 party candidates out of a total of 93 (40%).

The number of party candidates:

Reform Jersey – 14
The Progress Party – 4
Jersey Liberal Conservates – 5
PP/ JLC coalition – 9
Jersey Alliance – 14

Where do the parties have candidates?

St. Mary, St. Ouen and St. Peter (4 seats)

Reform Jersey – 1
Jersey Liberal Conservatives – 1
Jersey Alliance – 1
Independents – 4

St. Brelade (4 seats)

Reform Jersey – 1
Progress Party – 2
Jersey Alliance – 1
Independents – 4

St. John, St. Lawrence and Trinity (4 seats)

Jersey Alliance – 3
Independents – 5

St. Helier North (4 seats)

Reform Jersey – 1
Jersey Alliance – 2
Independents – 4

St. Helier Central (5 seats)

Reform Jersey – 5
Jersey Liberal Conservatives – 1
Independents – 2

St. Helier South (4 seats)

Reform Jersey – 3
Jersey Liberal Conservatives – 1
Jersey Alliance – 1
Independents – 6

St. Saviour (5 seats)

Reform Jersey – 1
Progress Party – 1
Jersey Liberal Conservatives – 1
Jersey Alliance – 1
Independents – 8

St. Clement (4 seats)

Reform Jersey – 1
Jersey Liberal Conservatives – 1
Jersey Alliance – 2
Independents – 3

Grouville and St. Martin (3 seats)

Progress Party – 1
Jersey Alliance – 1
Independents – 4

The biggest concentration of party candidates is St. Helier Central, where almost two-thirds (62%) of the eight candidates are party members, five of them from Reform Jersey.

Party candidates are also in a majority in St. Clement (four of the seven candidates) and form half the total in St. Brelade.

Everywhere else, there are more independents than party candidates.

The Jersey Alliance already look set to have one party member in the Assembly before a vote has been cast, with Philip Le Sueur, facing his third uncontested election for Constable in Trinity.

He is the only party member on the Comité des Connétables, with some of his colleagues on that particular body arguing that they will always put their parish above any party politics.