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PH/KAK/180 62
PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE (18th Meeting)
23rd June 2006
PART A
All members were present, with the exception of Senator S. Syvret from whom apologies had been received.
Connétable D.F. Gray of St. Clement - Chairman Senator M.E. Vibert
Connétable K.A. Le Brun of St. Mary
Deputy G.C.L. Baudains (for a time)
Deputy C.H. Egré (for a time)
Deputy J. Gallichan (for a time)
In attendance -
M.N. de la Haye, Greffier of the States
Miss P. Horton, Clerk to the Privileges and Procedures Committee Note: The Minutes of this meeting comprise Part A only.
Composition and A1. The Committee, with reference to its Minute No. B1 of 13th June 2006, election of the resumed consideration of the proposed survey of public opinion on electoral reform. States - opinion
survey on The Committee recalled that a total of six organisations had been contacted seeking electoral reform. expressions of interest to undertake the survey and replies had been received from 465/1(75) four of the organisations. Following detailed consideration of all of the proposals
submitted it had been agreed that Ipsos MORI would be engaged to undertake the opinion survey. In this regard the Committee welcomed Mr. Colin Wilby and Ms. Helen Coombs from MORI to discuss the survey.
Mr. Wilby advised the Committee that MORI would endeavour to reach as many people as possible by means of a survey conducted over the telephone. The Committee agreed that the survey should be conducted on persons aged eighteen and above as many of the questions would not be relevant to persons below that age group.
The Committee discussed in detail the main objectives it required to be addressed by the survey which included such issues as why people did not register to vote, in this regard Mr. Wilby was made aware of the requirement that persons had to be resident in the Island for a period of at least 2 years before they were entitled to be registered. Other issues raised by the Committee included establishing the reasons why people did vote/or did not vote; what knowledge of the present composition of the States people had, did they understand the differences between the rôles of Senators, Connétable s and Deputies; was the complexity of the present system an issue; did people have an opinion on the size of the Assembly; and, would it be more preferable to hold a general election? The Committee informed Mr. Wilby that it would be necessary for MORI to have an understanding of the housing qualifications which were unique to the Island as it would be important to survey people from each of the various housing categories and also advised that the Island had a diverse population including many residents whose first language was either Portuguese or Polish.
The Committee, having been advised that a first draft of the survey would be ready for its consideration by Tuesday 27th June 2006, thanked Mr. Wilby and Ms. Coombs for attending the meeting.