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Record number of parish candidates

 

[If you’re intending to vote in the St Peter Port and St Martin’s elections, here’s the link to our Voter Information ‘Hub’.]

 

The number of candidates standing in the parish elections for Douzenier or Constable has jumped dramatically from 39 in 2019 to 67 in 2020.

There has been a particularly big increase in the number of women coming forward to be a Douzenier, following Women in Public Life’s campaign to inspire more women to consider representing their local community.

 

 

Shelaine Green, Chair of Women in Public Life, said:

“We’re overjoyed to see such a surge of interest in the parish elections. A huge well done to the parish officials who recognised the need to publicise the elections beyond the Gazette Officielle and took part in videos, put up banners, ran drop-ins and posted on social media.

“Their hard work paid off. Last year, there was only one election in the Island where there were more candidates than seats available. This year, there are seven of them.

“As the group behind the campaign to inspire more women to consider standing, of course we are really pleased to see such a high numbers of female candidates and we congratulate each one for stepping forward to represent her local community. Looking at the Douzenier elections specifically, there are 19 new female candidates which is nearly four times the number in 2019 when only five new women stood.

“But elections aren’t just about new candidates. Across the Island, there are 22 existing Douzeniers re-standing, of which 86% are men, which means the overall percentage of women in the candidate pool is 39%.  That’s still significantly greater than this year’s island-wide election when the percentage of female candidates was 24%”.

“Turning to Constables, Torteval is guaranteed to continue to have two female Constables as Becky Link is not being challenged, Douzenier Shane Cummings is stepping up to Constable in St Andrews and Douzeniers Rosie Henderson and Zoe Lihou are competing for a Constable seat in St Peter Port.  We’ll be following all the elections closely”.

Front page article in Guernsey Press.

 

Guernsey’s iconic women of the future?

Thank you for nominating a young woman or girl for our future iconic Guernsey women campaign to celebrate International Women’s Day!

Nominations close on Sunday 6 March at 17.00.

Please fill in the details below.

miriam-makeba-SA

Miriam Makeba - South Africa

Nominated by: Christine James

Zenzile Miriam Makeba (1932 to 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, United Nations goodwill ambassador, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa. In 2020 she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 women of the century. 

South Africa is ranked 12th in the world for percentage of women in national parliament: 45.8% (source: data.ipu.org) 

Are you from South Africa? Please email hello@womeninpubliclife.gg if there is a social or cultural group for people from South Africa in Guernsey.

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The original image “The Hague Jazz 2008 – Miriam Makeba” by Haags Uitburo is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 

jacinda-adern-2

Jacinda Ardern - New Zealand

Nominated by: Martin Lock

Jacinda Ardern (born 1980) has served as prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party since 2017. In 2019, she led the country through the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, rapidly introducing strict gun laws in response, and throughout 2020 she directed the country’s widely praised response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ardern was the world’s second elected head of government to give birth in office when her daughter was born in 2018. ‘An inspiring Prime Minister who brought a nation together with true leadership, empathy and compassion.’

New Zealand is ranked 4th in the world for percentage of women in national parliament: 48.3% (source: data.ipu.org) 

Other iconic women: Dame Whina Cooper, nominated by Claire Fisher, and Kate Sheppard, nominated by Anna Cooper.

Are you from New Zealand? You may be interested in joining the ANZACs in Guernsey Facebook group

Want to learn more about public office vacancies in Guernsey? 

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