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Dear Sir,
Just to put forward my preferences for changes to our States Assembly; I would be 100% behind our Connétable s remaining in the States. I would like to then see 24 senators (or deputies) ALL elected Island wide.
As a Grouville resident I would personally have liked to retain a deputy
just for our parish. However, to have a properly fair and even election I
don't see any alternative. We currently have deputies of some parishes being elected on very low numbers of votes while others lose out having received far more votes in other parishes.
I certainly do not like the idea of 'super constituencies' which will give
far more representatives to parishes which usually have far lower turnouts than to those with higher turnouts. This plan would give St Helier 12 deputies with the rest of the Island having a total of 20. This set up would in all likelihood see some parishes with no deputy domiciled in their parish - for example with Grouville , St Clement and St Martin having a total of five elected deputies, they could in theory all be based in one of those parishes.
To truly have a fair representation of the population's choices, the Island Wide option would seem to me to be the simplest and the best option. There ought not to be a problem with states members being more involved with the parishes they live in or have close ties to and I would hope any of them would, as they probably do now, help anyone who came them for guidance. However, it may be that some parishes do not have any senators (deputies) living in their parish; this is where it is so important to keep the
Connétable s in the States Assembly. I would further add that I think it
would be advisable for St Helier to have a deputy Connetable as this is such a big parish for one person to have responsibility for.
I will hopefully get to one of the meetings to discuss the proposed changes to hear other peoples' views but just wanted to offer my personal opinion.
Regards,
Mrs Elaine Paisnel