A GENERAL election ‘is needed in April’. Former St Sampson’s deputy Harold Allen believes an emergency States meeting should be called for 14 February to accept without debate the resignation of all Policy Council members and to approve Wednesday 25 April as the date for the next election, a year earlier than planned.

The move would restore much needed confidence in the States following Fallagate and the finding of the Wales Audit Office report.

‘It’s a unique opportunity. We are very close to April and this is a very serious business,’ he said.

‘If this was the UK Government and their Cabinet fell, they would be setting a date for an election.

‘I know we are different to them but this is the most serious thing that has happened in my life in the States. It would be the best thing to happen because the public could have their say.

‘The deputies should not be scared to face the public. Not if they haven’t done anything wrong.’

He also feels the short notice would not be a problem for any potential candidates wishing to stand and that precedents had already been made in the past to reduce terms of States members.

‘If there’s an election, people who want to stand will do so. It’s that simple.

‘What’s the point in electing a new Policy Council for one year? We would have a new chief minister who would then need to select his office. There’s no point in doing that for a year.’

Ahead of his proposed election on 25 April, Mr Allen said the deputy ministers should become acting ones and that one of the deputy ministers would be chosen by their counterparts to chair the council for an interim period.

‘Deputy ministers are quite capable to carry on. If they’re not, what are they doing in the States? Surely if you’ve served as a deputy minister for three years you can manage being a minister for a couple of months.’

Mr Allen, who served in the States from 1985-91 and 1994-2000, was extremely perturbed with what had happened in the past two weeks.

‘I’m disappointed in the behaviour of members who were raising issues that weren’t relevant to the matter that they were debating.

‘The matter in hand was the difference in the two tender offers.

‘They just for some reason decided to raise an issue that had been smouldering away for two or three years at that meeting. R. G. Falla had done many States jobs. They’ve always been completed on time and in budget and I don’t know what they thought they could achieve by raising that issue then.’

* Bringing the election date forward would require a change of law and Privy Council approval.