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STATES OF JERSEY
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COMPOSITION OF THE STATES: REDUCTION IN NUMBER OF DEPUTIES (P.2/2011) – SECOND AMENDMENT
Lodged au Greffe on 11th January 2011 by Deputy M. Tadier of St. Brelade
STATES GREFFE
2011 Price code: A P.2 Amd.(2)
COMPOSITION OF THE STATES: REDUCTION IN NUMBER OF DEPUTIES (P.2/2011) – SECOND AMENDMENT
PAGE 2, PARAGRAPH (b) –
After the words "as set out in the Appendix 1" insert the words –
", except that for Saint Helier there shall be returned 10 Deputies, and for Trinity , Saint John, Saint Mary, Saint Ouen and Saint Lawrence there shall be returned 1 Deputy ".
DEPUTY M. TADIER OF ST. BRELADE
REPORT
In his proposition, Deputy Noel proposes reducing the number of Deputies from 29 to 21 and creating 5 super constituencies' in which the 21 Deputies should be distributed proportionately according to the population. I will not comment here on the desirability or otherwise of either proposal, however the point of this amendment is to address what I believe has been an oversight on the part of the Deputy , and if this proposal is to be adopted, I believe that this amendment will make it fairer.
Whilst trying to achieve proportionality in the representation of each super- constituency, Deputy Noel has ignored the fact that in addition to the allocated Deputies which each area is to have, they will also have a number of other political representatives in the form of the Parish Connétable s. The exact number of political representatives will therefore vary greatly depending on how many parishes are contained within each Super-Constituency.
What Deputy Noel is proposing –
Constituency | % of population | No. of Deputies | No. of Connétable s | Total no. of Representatives | Ideal no. of Respresentatives* |
1 St. Helier | 32.47 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 10.72 |
2 St. Saviour St. Martin | 18.48 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6.10 |
3 Grouville St. Clement | 14.79 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4.88 |
4 Trinity St. John , St. Mary St. Ouen St. Lawrence | 17.70 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 5.8 |
5 St. Brelade St. Peter | 16.55 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5.46 |
* Ideal no of representatives is calculated by multiplying the percentage of population by the total no. of representatives (i.e. 21 Deputies and 12 Connétable s = 33 representatives), so to get the ideal for St. Helier : 0.3247 x 33= 10.7151.
As you will see from the above table, Deputy Noel is on the money when it comes to allocating Deputies to constituencies 2, 3 and 5, however, when the effect of the Connétable s is taken into account – i.e. only one for Constituency No. 1, but 5 for No. 4, then his model starts to break down.
Page - 3
P.2/2011 Amd.(2)
What I am proposing below corrects this and makes representation mathematically as near as possible to proportionate.
Constituencies | Number of Deputies to be returned | Total number of representatives, including Connétable s | Mathematically ideal number of Representatives |
St. Helier | 10 | 11 | 10.72 |
St. Saviour St. Martin | 4 (unchanged) | 6 | 6.10 |
Grouville St. Clement | 3 (unchanged) | 5 | 4.88 |
Trinity St. John St. Mary St. Ouen St. Lawrence | 1 | 6 | 5.8 |
St. Brelade St. Peter | 3 (unchanged) | 5 | 5.46 |
Essentially, what this amendment does is to show the disproportionate and perverse effect that Deputy Noel's proposition, if unamended, would have on political representation in rural and urban areas.
I will spare you another table, but it should be noted that, if left unamended, St. Helier residents would be left with one representative per 3,539 inhabitants, whereas those in the rural super-constituency would have one representative per 1,715, effectively double. This is clearly not democratic.
Financial and manpower implications
There are no additional financial or manpower implications arising from this amendment.