Royal Court Challenge. Re-election St Helier Number 1?

PRESS RELEASE ON BEHALF OF

NICK LE CORNU AND GINO RISOLI

FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION      -       31ST OCTOBER 2014

Challenge in Royal Court to St Helier District No.1 Election

Deputy Nick Le Cornu and Gino Risoli, candidates in the election for Deputy in St Helier No.1 held on 15^th October 2014, are presenting an application to the Royal Court at 10am Friday 31st October to have the election in that District declared void and a new election called, based on high levels of electoral irregularities and manipulations.

A press conference will be held outside the States Building, Royal Square at 11am by both applicants.

Nick Le Cornu said “Jersey’s first General Election has been marred by irregularities in elections across the island and most recently in the Senatorial recount which “found” new votes. New matters are emerging on a daily basis from elections across the island.”

“To the very end I am fulfilling my mandate as Deputy to challenge the way things have been done in the past. That is what I stood for when I was elected in the March by-election. I am morally obliged to take that commitment seriously.”

“I asked the Chief Minister twice during question time and the Chairman of the Privileges and Procedures Committee if election observers would be invited to Jersey’s first General Election and received anodyne answers. The present mess is the consequence.”

“PPC and the Parishes have been found wanting.  Complacency and indifference abound. The absence of rigor and professionalism is matched by a refusal to implement best practice and standards applicable elsewhere. There even appears to be ignorance of the detailed handbooks produced by the Electoral Commission in the UK for the forthcoming May 2015 General Election.”

“During the count in St Helier 3/4 some 261 pre poll votes were not added in before the result of the election was announced. This discovery necessitated a restatement of the numbers.”

“I have evidence of Portuguese people registered to vote being turned away from pre-polling on spurious grounds that their names could not be found. No effort was made to check persons by their address in the street roll of electors”.

“Large numbers of Poles discovered that they were not registered to vote following an extensive voter registration campaign by the supporters of a Polish Senatorial candidate. Forms known to have been delivered to the Town Hall simply had not been processed, denying the right to vote on election day.”

“In the Deputies ballot box of District No.1 there appeared a blank ballot for Deputy in District No.2 St Helier. I suspect this irregularity occurred from a error at pre-polling resulting in the ballot being directed to the wrong polling station. This should be investigated”

“We have to look beyond one little error in one District. There were a preponderance of irregularities and the devil is in the detail. These raise doubts about the integrity of the election as a whole. These things cannot be dismissed as “an accident” when looked at together.”

“Of particular concern to us is that Scott Wickenden was allowed to stand as a candidate and end up being elected a Deputy in District No.1, when his nomination form was defective by virtue of not having 9 seconders, all capable of voting for him in that election. It is inconceivable that the checking process by the Parish of St Helier failed to spot this most fundamental of errors, that one of his seconders was registered in District No.2. Checking is supposed to occur before the nomination meeting, on the night and double checked subsequently. This is gross negligence by Scott Wickenden and on the part of the Constable and Parish of St Helier.”

“The onus is entirely on the candidate to present a valid nomination form at the Nomination Meeting. The absence of 9 seconders on the nomination form invalided the candidate and his election. The candidate only has himself to blame if he cannot understand the fundamental requirements of the election law. These are spelled out in the instructions attached to every nomination paper obtained from a Parish hall.”

“Election disputes are inherent to elections. Challenging an election, its conduct or its results, should however not be perceived as a reflection of weakness, but proof of the strength, vitality and openness of the political system. The right to vote would be merely abstract if the right to sue to enforce it was not guaranteed in law.”

“This is a political issue that must be challenged for the sake of the integrity of the electoral process in Jersey.”

“On the 9^th November will be the 25^th anniversary of the collapse of states who had other electoral standards than ours. Twenty five years after the non-elected Socialist governments disappeared we cannot get our elections honest.”

“Were this Russia or Ukraine these anomalies would be presented as a “crisis of democracy.”