ELECTIONS AND REFORM: SMALL BRANCH VIEW
Ordinary Election shall be held for the purpose of electing members of the States in place of the members whose terms of office expire in that year. If a casual vacancy occurs among the members, the States shall appoint a day not later than 3 months after the vacancy occurs on which there shall be held a By-Election, unless the vacancy occurs on or after the 1 July in the final year of office of the member whose office has become vacant, in which case the vacancy shall remain unfilled until the next Ordinary Election.” Residents that are registered on the Electoral Roll but will be absent from the Island on Election Day, have two alternatives open to them:- (1) Postal Vote - Application forms can be obtained from the Office of the Chief Executive but voting slips cannot be posted until they have been printed
following the closure of the nomination process. (2) Proxy Vote - Application forms can be obtained from the Office of the Chief Executive. These allow a relative or friend, who is registered on the electoral roll, to be nominated to cast a vote on their behalf on Election Day.
Applications for both postal and proxy voting must be registered with the Chief Executive at least two days prior to the election. Vote counting is a curiously elaborate, laborious and antiquated procedure. Immediately after the end of polling hours, the votes are counted in the Anne French Room, Island Hall.
It should be noted that according to the States of Alderney Election Procedure Ordinance 1987 only the Returning Officer, who is the Chief Executive and head of the
Civil Service and his staff, the Jurats (Magistrates) carrying out the count and each candidate (or his representative) may be present during the count. Anyone wishing to attend should seek the consent of the Returning Officer prior to Election Day. Unauthorised persons are not admitted. The electoral count takes some 3 to 4 hours. The vote(s) on each ballot paper is read out by the Returning Officer and independently recorded by the Jurats who periodically cross check the votes for each candidate every time they record an additional five votes for that candidate. This open outcry process of counting the votes is a curious anachronism, which reflects a small and closed community where it was important to try to dispel the perception of personal influences set the outcome of the election.
Above: The scenic coastline of Alderney. Image: www.
visitalderney.com
What reforms in terms of design and management of elections might be considered? They are inevitably limited given the small electorate.
Political parties
The major challenge is the absence of political parties. There is a received wisdom in the Channel Islands that the absence of political parties is the essential strength of the localism which is essential to the historic democracy and the established form of governance adopted by the various islands. A closer inspection of the effects this relatively unusual arrangement has on the ability of the islands to govern themselves soon proves that such a view is extremely misguided; the lack
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