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Dear Panel,
Members may have already received these comments.
In the Referendum Option A and B received 80% of the vote. Both options proposed a reduction in States members and to have 6 super constituencies. So why has this not been done?
It has generally been understood that Electoral Reform would seek to:-
Improve the balance/ratio of voters to candidates; Increase the turnout at elections;
Reduce the number of politicians.
Currently there does not seek to be much attempt to do this.
The recently proposed electoral areas seemed to have been conjured up merely to suit States member's job security. Electors should feel some community empathy to the area in which they cast their vote. Furthermore, some parishes have been altered from the previous proposal without any consultation. St Ouen, for example now finds itself allied with St Brelade. Electors in the small parishes will effectively become disenfranchised. If there are to be new Electoral Districts then they should have commonality.
Another mistake is to assume representation purely by population density. Land area and use, environment, roads services and the like need to be considered. In any case, based on population ratio, the current proposal is very unbalanced with far too many Deputies in St Helier.
Once the novelty has worn off it will become an electoral turnoff and even fewer people will vote.
The Assembly need to look at this from the voters' view point, not their own, which is blatant self-interest and job preservation by certain States Members.
As a rule of thumb, population 4000: 1 would give each Parish 1 Deputy (perhaps a couple of Parishes sharing if strictly applied). Using the same approximate ratio for the larger populated parishes would justify additional deputies on a far better spread of representation and the town parishes would not justify the disproportionate number in the latest Proposal.
Senators
When the election of Senators took place prior to that of Deputies, it attracted the cream, with the opportunity of standing for Deputy if one did well, but not enough to be elected. Having it the same day will inevitably attract a number with little hope of election as Deputy , but with say only 12 candidates, not unlikely, gives the best of the dross a very high chance of success. ie 2:3
Something which the saboteur of Andrew Lewis ' Proposition would have been well aware of.
Yours sincerely, Andrew Courtness,