St. Brelade Constable declared after Reform candidate pulls out

Thursday 19 April 2018

Mike Jackson has been declared the Constable of St. Brelade following a Royal Court hearing this morning.

The hearing, which took more than two hours, was convened after the only other candidate for the seat, Reform Jersey’s Marilyn Carré, pulled out.

Ms Carré withdrew from the race after the Parish Secretary brought discrepancies in her nomination form to the attention of the Attorney General. It was alleged that her party declaration had not been fully completed before her nominators signed her form. Reform Jersey branded the error an "honest mistake."

A Royal Court hearing was called today to establish whether the nominators had understood that Ms Carré was standing for Reform Jersey. 

Pictured: Marilyn Carré, who pulled out of the election for St. Brelade Constable after a parish official alerted the Royal Court to discrepancies on her nomination form.

Appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, Advocate Sylvia Roberts told the court that Ms Carré would have been allowed to stand if her proposers and seconders had confirmed that they were aware she was endorsed by the Reform party.

Given that the Jersey Hospice worker had revoked her candidacy, however, the court was instead left to consider whether to hand the position to her opponent, Mike Jackson, or to reopen nominations.

The court heard that reopening nominations would raise a number of legal and administrative difficulties, such as the printing of manifestos and implications for postal voters.

Advocate Roberts also suggested that Mr Jackson may be financially disadvantaged if nominations were reopened. Election expenses laws do not allow for candidates to spend more money under any circumstances, meaning that Mr Jackson would have less money to use were he forced to launch a fresh campaign against a different candidate.

Called before the court, the Parish Procureur said he would be "disappointed" to see nominations reopened. "I'm mindful as Procureur of the extra expense the parish would be put through in order to facilitate that," he said, later adding that the "logic" to him would be to announce Mr Jackson as Constable.

Mr Jackson also made a representation before the court, telling them that he would feel "hard done by" should nominations be reopened, having correctly filled out his nomination form, but added that he was "conscious that an election is better."

But the crux of the issue was that the law only permitted one nomination meeting to be held per election, so another could not take place unless the previous one had been annulled. As the original St. Brelade nomination meeting involving Ms Carré and Mr Jackson had progressed in a lawful way, there was no reason that it could be legally voided.

Following deliberations that totalled more than one hour, Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, presiding, concluded that: "The position therefore put simply is that there has been a properly held nomination meeting... Two candidates were nominated, one has now withdrawn, leaving one candidate for one office.

"Mr Jackson is therefore to be taken as having been duly elected.”

Mr Jackson previously served in the role between 2005 and 2011, and was also Minister of Transport and Technical Services (TTS) - now known as the Department for Infrastructure - for three years.

He will take the oath of office at 10:00 on 1 June.