Guernsey voters are heading to the polls today in the island’s second ever fully island-wide election… will it be another record-breaking turnout that puts Jersey to shame?
38 people need to be elected to the States of Deliberation for a four-year term.
They and the two States of Alderney Representatives will make up Guernsey’s government.
The 38 Guernsey deputies will be chosen from the 82 candidates pictured above.
They’ve each been campaigning for a month or longer to try and secure the votes of the 27,316 people who registered.
Are we on course for another record-breaker?
It is the second election in which people from Guernsey will be able to elect deputies to represent the whole island, rather than individual constituencies.
The first island-wide election took place during pandemic year 2020 and shattered turnout records, with 80% taking part.
More than 600,000 votes were cast in Guernsey’s momentous, record-setting island-wide election – with an average of 26 per voter.
Questions were asked in the lead-up to the election whether the new voting system would damage public engagement, after the 2016 parish-based election saw a record turnout of 45% – but that figure was blown out of the water.
Meanwhile, despite widespread electoral reforms which included the removal of the island-wide post of Senator, Jersey’s 2022 election turnout decreased to 41.6% – putting Jersey’s engagement lower than any country in the OECD.
In a recent survey, a quarter of Jersey adults said they’d be in favour of making voting mandatory in an effort to drive up engagement.
When will we know Guernsey’s results?
Polling stations are open between 08:00 and 20:00 today across eight sites.
There were two advance polling days too, and postal ballots have already been coming in, meaning some people have already voted.
The votes will all be counted tomorrow before the results are declared during tomorrow evening.
The new States will be sworn in at the beginning of July.
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