Fourth time lucky for challenge against citizen election requirement?

Friday 27 September 2024

A local politician has reignited his ongoing fight to allow non-British Jersey residents to be eligible to stand for election in Jersey.

Deputy Montfort Tadier has revived his thrice-defeated proposition to allow non-British people living in Jersey to stand to become an elected representative this week.

Under current laws, being a British citizen is one of the criteria for standing as a Constable or a Deputy in Jersey.    

Deputy Tadier is calling for this requirement to be removed in time for the 2026 elections.

A person does not have a choice about where they are born, but they can choose
where they live.

I have lodged a proposal to give more people the right to stand for election. You can read it here https://t.co/Qwo3Tg4mQU #JerseyCI @BBCJersey @ITVChannelTV @Channel103 @JEPnews

— Deputy Montfort Tadier (@DeputyTadier) September 27, 2024

Deputy Tadier opened the report accompanying his proposition with the famous quotation: "If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again."

He explained: "Most right-thinking people will probably tell you that they don’t place so much importance on characteristics such as race, nationality, sexual orientation, age or gender; when it comes to someone’s potential to do a job, it is what skills, experience and knowledge they have to offer that counts.

"This should also be the case for political office."

Pictured: The proposition is being brought back to the States Assembly for a fourth time.

He added: "When it comes to entering the political arena, the primary concern of a candidate should be if they have enough of these skills to offer in public service, not whether they have been able to pass a nationality test."

Deputy Tadier also pointed to the wider struggle for equality, noting that 100 years have passed since Jersey women were first permitted to stand for election to the Assembly.

"It felt appropriate that a reflection the parallels with the women’s equality movement has with the subject of this proposition," he said.

"We are now 100 years on, and it is Jersey’s women in our community who are legally prevented from standing vote, but our non-British residents."

Pictured: Portuguese national Graca Ramos was unable to stand for a seat in the 2018 election due to not having a British passport.

In 2018, Express spoke to a Portuguese primary school teacher who expressed her disappointment at not being able to run for a seat in the States after living and working in the island for 22 years.

At the time, Graca Ramos said: “From a legalities point of view, I had to accept it… But I feel I had become part of the community.” 

"You live here, you belong here, it’s where you set your roots. My son was born here. I’m not just here for the time to pass – I probably know more about Jersey than I do about my hometown!” she joked.