Review of States Member Count Scheduled

The body responsible for States regulations is set to examine the quantity of elected officials within the States of Deliberation during the upcoming political cycle. This action follows the approval of a proposal by Deputy Peter Roffey, which mandates the States Assembly and Constitution Committee (SACC) to investigate the issue. Consequently, earlier plans for establishing a dedicated special committee to address this topic have been abandoned, notwithstanding a previously successful proposal put forth by former Chief Minister Jonathan Le Tocq. Efforts to either decrease or augment the total number of States members prior to the general election scheduled for June 2025 did not succeed. Deputy Roffey put forward the idea that proposals for a referendum concerning the implementation of executive government in Guernsey are now necessary, stating his view that the existing consensus system is ineffective. This assertion followed the rejection of his initial plans to decrease the number of States members by 10. Deputies Yvonne Burford and Heidi Soulsby had advocated for an examination of the electoral process for deputies, but their suggestions were defeated by a small margin. Initiatives aimed at expanding the number of States members met with even less success, evidenced by Deputy John Gollop’s proposals to transition to 45 deputies for the subsequent political term, which garnered only three votes. Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.