EMERGENCY questions were due to be asked in the States this morning about Wednesday’s election result in St Helier No 2 district.
A police investigation has been launched into alleged irregularities in postal votes in the district, and it is understood that one of the unsuccessful candidates has made a formal complaint to officers. Sitting Deputies Geoff Southern and Shona Pitman were re-elected in the district by big margins, but their Jersey Democratic Alliance colleague Debbie de Sousa beat fourth-placed challenge Rod Bryans by just 32 votes.
Deputy Sean Power (pictured) has tabled late questions — which have been approved by the Deputy Bailiff, Michael Birt, despite being after the normal deadline — for this morning’s sitting. But a second question he wanted to ask Attorney General William Bailhache about what would happen to the election result if allegations of electoral fraud were proven was disallowed.
Mr Bryans refused to comment on whether he had made a complaint to the police when he was contacted by the JEP yesterday. But it is understood that he wrote a long e-mail to the force on Saturday setting out concerns that he and other unsuccessful candidates had about the misuse of postal votes.
Article posted on 2nd December, 2008 - 3.00pm
2 Article Comments
‘Emergency’ questions?
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I’d guess a technical term to allow questions without the normal notice period.
And any suggestion of voting irregularity is important, as it undermines the entire democratic process. There are a few Councils on the mainland who have been there, and we don’t need that here.
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