States Assembly and Constitution Committee chairman Ivan Rihoy. (0575512)
ISLAND-WIDE voting took another step forward this week.
The first draft of a Green Paper setting out the options has been produced and discussed, with a finalised version expected to be ready for debate in October.
After that initial consultation, the States Assembly and Constitution Committee, formerly known as the House Committee, will come up with its final recommendation.
Scenarios to be considered include island-wide voting for 10 to 15 members, the whole House, or even the chief minister.
During its board meeting, which is open to the media, chairman Deputy Ivan Rihoy said the draft was negative in some areas.
Others agreed.
‘I’m in the balance with island-wide voting, but I accept it didn’t make the point in favour quite as much as it should have,’ said Deputy Matt Fallaize.
‘What I envisage us taking to the States is something like this that’s sufficiently open to generate a wide-ranging debate. I don’t think we need to say the model we prefer.’
Deputy Tom Le Pelley said the report needed to be as wide-ranging as possible.
‘It’s like going fishing with all the baits on the hook and seeing what you can catch,’ he said.
Deputy Shane Langlois said the more he looked at island-wide voting, the less he was sold by it.
He stressed that the report had to include all possibilities so that the States debate was focused.
Deputy Mary Lowe made several suggestions on how the report could be strengthened, believing that some areas were too negative.
Article posted on 6th August, 2008 - 11.30am
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