SENATOR Stuart Syvret will challenge Senator Frank Walker in the contest to decide Jersey’s first Chief Minister.

The Health and Social Services Committee president, who topped the poll six years ago, has announced he will stand again in next month’s Senatorial election and, assuming he is re-elected, will take on the political establishment in a bid to be Jersey’s first ‘Prime Minister’.

Although he shares certain policies – support for the finance industry and tighter restrictions on States spending – with the politicians who have run the Policy and Resources and Finance and Economics Committees that dominate States policies, he would present a very different kind of political leadership.

Senator Syvret has continually clashed with Senators Walker, Terry Le Sueur and Philip Ozouf, and has made several successful amendments to the way ministerial government will operate.

Most notably, he has opened up nominations for ministerial posts to the floor of the States Chamber and made the House responsible for dismissing Ministers.

The Senator says that in his 15 years as a States Member he has also been responsible for the introduction of Freedom of Information, Competition Law, referendum legislation and the idea for the Town Park.