Concern that 'insults and inflammatory remarks' could deter future election candidates

There's a warning that 'insults and inflammatory remarks' seen in this year's election campaign could deter people from standing in future elections.

That is one early finding by a team of international observers, who have been brought in for a third straight election to judge it against international standards, commitments and obligations, as well as domestic laws.

The Jersey Electoral Authority received complaints about misinformation being spread in the lead-up to Sunday's election, which included 'menacing and untrue attacks' online.

Ben Graham-Jones, election analyst, said:

"A number of interlocutors raised concerns about social media in the election. Of course, on one hand, social media does provide, and did provide, a venue for people to engage in spirited debate back-and-forth, but there were also concerns from a range of interlocutors about the tone and nature of some of that content, including cases of inflammatory language.

"One concern that we had as a Mission is the effect that could have on people's enthusiasm to put themselves forward as a political candidate in the future."

The observers met election officials, candidates, and local groups to get an insight into Jersey's specific electoral process.

One particular change in this election was the introduction of Automatic Voter Registration, meaning islanders eligible to vote were automatically added to the electoral register using existing records held by Employment, Social Security, and Housing.

Gary Clueit, The Head of Mission, said:

"We noted that there weren't many opportunities to test the system, as it only went live in March. Once the electoral administrators in the parishes were able to check the accuracy of the new system, a significant number of errors and admissions became apparent.

"Despite that, the issues were resolved quickly and concerns expressed beforehand about polling day did not materialise.

"While the electoral register for the 2022 election contained approximately 61,000 voters, the data extracted using the AVR system identified about 80,000 voters."

As well as voting on election day on Sunday 7 June, 2,785 people took the opportunity to vote early using pre-poll at St Paul's Centre.

It was open from Tuesday 26 May until Friday 29 June and on Monday 1 June.

However, Mr Clueit said:

"We heard that some people felt the pre-poll period was too short, closing too early before polling, and the lack of availability at weekends was also inconvenient."