From Derek Gray, chairman, Privileges and Procedures Committee.
I WRITE in response to Senator Le Main’s letter (JEP, 18 November) regarding the absence of two Deputies from their nomination meetings earlier this month.

In his letter, Senator Le Main states that Deputies Huet and de Faye were unable to attend their nomination meetings because, ‘Privileges and Procedures alter-ed the agreed nomination dates’.

This is not the case. Nomination dates are not set by the Privileges and Procedures Committee, which has no involvement in the pro-cess and has never discussed it at all. The dates of the nomination meetings are set by the Constables Committee.

This year’s nomination meeting dates were fixed by the Constables Committee at its meeting of 21 January 2008, including the date of 4 November 2008 for Dep-uty nomination meetings.

On 3 March 2008, the committee considered a request by the Deputy of St Martin to reconsider to allow more time for canvassing and postal and pre-poll voting. However, bringing the date forward by one week would have coincided with the school half-term, and the committee decided it did not wish to bring the date forward by two weeks.

The matter was reconsidered on 19 May, following a further request from the Deputy of St Martin, but the Constables Committee maintained its decision to hold the Deputy nomination meet-ings on 4 November.

In conclusion, responsibility for fixing nomination dates is specified in the Public Elections (Jersey) Law 2002, and does not involve the Privileges and Procedures Committee.
Morier House,
Halkett Place,
St Helier.