When is a party not a party?

23 October 2005

Yesterday, Saturday 22 October, the Centre Party announced that its candidates would stand as independent candidates in the elections for Deputies on 23 November. Its press release said that "any elected members would be free to vote according to their conscience."

It added that "all candidates however remained committed to membership of the party and were certain of a more favourable result at the 2008 Senatorial elections."

It is not entirely clear, therefore, what the Centre Party's strategy is. It has members, and some (or perhaps all?) of them are standing for Deputies' seats, but not representing their party. Considering the electorate's apparent rejection of party politics in the Senatorial election, an average voter could be forgiven for wondering whether this is just electoral sleight of hand to attempt to make Centre Party members more electable.

And what will the Party's strategy be after the elections for Deupties? It is hard to imagine that any candidates who had formerly intended to stand in the name of the Centre Party, and who remain members of that party, would not vote en bloc if elected.

Voters should be cautious. Elect Jersey 2005 will identify on this web site any "independent" candidates standing in the Deputies' elections who have either stood before as Centre Party candidates or had declared as Centre Party candidates before the Party made this announcement.

It will be interesting to see whether the Jersey Democratic Alliance also changes its strategy before the Deputies' nomination meetings on Tuesday evening.