2022 Jersey General Election

The 2022 Jersey general election was held on 22 June 2022 to elect connétables and deputies to the States Assembly. As in previous elections, the majority of seats were won by independents. The governing Jersey Alliance party suffered a heavy defeat, losing all but one of its seats. Following the election, a coalition government led by Better Way Deputy Kristina Moore was formed.

Independent politicians won 32 of the 49 seats in the Assembly. Reform Jersey won 10 seats, primarily in the new St Helier constituencies, the largest win in the party's history. Whilst Jersey Alliance won a sizable share of the popular vote, it only won a single seat; almost all of its members in the Assembly were voted out, most notably the incumbent Chief Minister John Le Fondré. The newly founded Jersey Liberal Conservatives and Progress Party, comprising the JLC–Progress coalition, received 2 and 1 seats respectively.

Despite widespread electoral reforms made in 2021 intended to improve civic engagement, turnout decreased from the previous election to 41.6%. Following the election, Jersey Alliance's single member in the Assembly resigned from the party after only a month, leaving it with no representation in the States Assembly. The Progress Party disbanded a year later in July 2023.

Timeline

Electoral system

The 2022 elections are the first to have been held under a new electoral system. Under the system, the role of Senators is abolished and replaced with 37 Deputies elected across 9 districts via plurality block voting. The election of one Connétable from each of the twelve parishes is maintained.

This election has seen the debut of many new political parties to a political landscape that has been traditionally dominated by independent candidates. Before the election the newly formed centre-right Jersey Alliance, which included the previous Chief Minister John Le Fondré, had led the previous Government of Jersey. The centre-right Liberal Conservatives and the centrist Progress Party entered into a political pact with one other for the election. The existing social-democratic Reform Jersey party will also contest the election, and a group of independent candidates will stand with a shared platform and agreed principles under the name of ‘Better Way’, including Chief Scrutineer and Senator Kristina Moore.

For the 2022 elections, the Constable of St. Martin brought forward an amendment to include ''"the choice of ‘None of the Above’ to be automatically included as a ballot option in any States Assembly election where the number of candidates in a District or Parish does not exceed the number of seats available, with an appropriate formal consequence being provided should this ballot option achieve a plurality of the votes cast."'' The change was subsequently approved by the States Assembly.

Political parties and groups

The table below lists the parties or groups that nominated at least one candidate for the election:

Notes

As the electorate can vote for more than one candidate, including voting for multiple candidates of differing political parties, the vote total is not indicative of the popular vote share of each party but rather the total number of votes each candidate received.

The 'Better Way' group ran as independents and are not a registered political party nor stood as a political party. Their candidates received 8,016 votes and 4 out of 5 of their candidates were elected.

Results

By constituency

By party

List of elected members

Connétables

Deputies

Aftermath

Government formation

The elected States members were officially sworn into office on 27 June. In order to be included in the vote for Chief Minister, candidates needed to receive nominations from six other States members by 5pm that day. Only three candidates put their names forward; Kristina Moore, (leader of Better Way), Sam Mézec (leader of Reform Jersey), and Philip Bailhache (leader of the Jersey Liberal Conservatives). Mark Boleat, leader of Jersey Alliance, had announced his intention to run for Chief Minister prior to the election, but lost his seat. Moore received 30 nominations, greater than the 25 votes needed to win the vote, immediately making her the clear frontrunner. Mézec received 9 nominations, clearing the threshold to be included on the ballot. Bailhache failed to receive enough nominations to be included, and withdrew from the race.

The new States Assembly held its first meeting on 5 July to choose the new Chief Minister. Moore won the vote 39–10, becoming the first woman to hold the office. Moore selected a mix of independent, Better Way, and JLC States members as her nominations for her Council of Ministers. The States Assembly confirmed her nominations on 11 July, creating the Moore ministry.

Collapse of parties

In July 2022, Jersey Alliance's sole elected States member, Philip Le Sueur, resigned from the party due to its poor electoral performance.

A year later in July 2023, the Progress Party disbanded, also citing disappointing performance in the 2022 election.

Notes

References

{{Jersey elections

General elections in Jersey
General
Jersey
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