At its heart, I’d suggest, is the right to self-determination. And, as I explained in this column for the Jersey Evening Post, that’s why voter engagement is pretty crucial.

WHAT’S Liberation Day to you? No, not a trick question but, scratch down a bit, and what does it really mean? Day off? A bit of fun? A chance to reflect on and celebrate freedom from enemy occupation? Or not much at all really? Just another long weekend? 

Your answer, I suspect, will depend on a number of things, particularly age and connection with the island itself. For my parents, no longer with us, the Occupation and the war itself (mum was originally from Manchester) were ever-present memories and attitude-shapers.

As kids, we grew up hearing Germans referred to only as “those b*stards” or “bloody Hun”. Not just from parents either. It was the same for all their circle of friends, either here during the Occupation or returning after the conflict.

So, what’s Liberation Day to you? At its core, I’d like to suggest, is the right to self-determination. To free and fair elections and having a say in how your island’s run and by whom. Not being told what to do and how to do it by an enemy invader and losing all rights to a voice of your own.

Yet in little more than three generations since a young boy on a bike in Guernsey on 9 May 1945 was told by the first soldier ashore to cycle on the “English” side of the road in case he was run over by the liberating convoy, we’re in danger of losing it all over again. This time, voluntarily and by default. 

The issue, which was explored recently by Assistant Chief Minister Carina Alves and others at a distinguished event hosted by Nottingham University on voter disengagement, was electoral apathy and its consequences. 

Special study
This is the specialist field of academic Dr Christopher Pich, an Associate Professor at the university, who has used Jersey as a special study because it has experienced the lowest voter turnout among members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with little sign of improvement.

Well, yes, I sense your impatience. This is heavy stuff and, anyway, who cares? Put simply, we all should, because contempt for politics and politicians is fundamentally dangerous. But don’t just take my word for it. A lot of serious work has been done on this and – bottom line – the number of people engaging in electoral processes is a good indicator of democratic health. That self-determination thing again. 

So the rise in voter disengagement, cynicism and a widening disconnection between voters and electoral participation across the board paints a bleak picture for how our democracies are currently functioning.

As Dr Pich puts it, “If voter disengagement continues to rise, it poses a direct threat to the integrity of elections and electoral democracy, the stability of governance of states as well as empowering disruptive narratives that speak to people who feel underrepresented.”

We all, I think, instinctively see this to be true – and the degree to which we feel that depends on how disaffected we are. In turn, that hinges on how profoundly we are under- or un-represented by our deputies and States. 

Here in Jersey, that’s significant. As Dr Pich told me, “From my recent research in Jersey, the low calibre of politicians/candidates was a key barrier to voter engagement. Our research suggested that candidates/politicians were seen as out of touch, inexperienced for taking on roles in Government, unclear what they stood for, and career politicians.”

Ouch. A brutal assessment from islanders. That’s why so many people don’t bother to vote in Jersey and why so many can, with legitimacy, ask by what right States members tell them how to run their lives and spend their money.

Better in Guernsey
By contrast, Guernsey’s election turn-outs have been very strong. But that, too, is in doubt. The number eligible to vote in next month’s general election stands at 27,316 – the lowest for 25 years and nearly 4,000 down on the election of 2020. In all, not much more than 60% of those eligible to vote now actually can. 

The reasons for that are pretty clear – massive dissatisfaction with this current States Assembly and the decision to treat the island as a single electoral ward, forcing people to choose 38 deputies from a list of more than 100 (frequently unknown) candidates. 

The consequences of that are, many feel, dire – a States that has shown itself to be hopelessly inadequate for confronting the problems it’s facing: a declining economy, falling living standards, a housing crisis and (especially mirrored here in Jersey) an exodus of brighter young islanders and crashing birth rates. 

In the 80 years since the Liberation, both islands have gone from bust to boom and back again, if you factor in things like the 1973 oil crisis, recessions in the early 1980s and ’90s, the financial crisis in 2008 and the Covid slump in 2020.

Each time, recovery has been a bit harder and demanded more of its politicians, institutions and people – and with more folk left behind as better times returning coincided with widening disparity, driven especially by housing costs.

The work by Dr Pich shows that the reasons for voter apathy are many and complex but not necessarily permanent. Electors can be turned on or off, with irrelevance, disillusionment and disconnection acting as significant drivers. That’s why his 2023 study ‘Exploring the Voter Journey in the Context of Jersey: Engagement, Barriers and Recommendations’ came up with eight proposals to improve things. 

None, I think it’s fair to say, are easy but some could quickly be adopted by the Jersey Electoral Authority for the 2026 election. Others, such as the more controversial introduction of mandatory voting, are longer-term, but doing nothing isn’t really an option.

Guernsey is waiting to see how widespread dissatisfaction with government plays out in next month’s election – which will be a nerve-wracking time – but we’ve all seen the growth in those disruptive narratives (“fake news”) identified by Dr Pich’s studies.

Joke
There’s always been a tendency over the years to regard politics in these island as a bit of a joke. Not necessarily unkindly, more in an, “ah, well, what can you expect…?” sort of a way.

The problem now, however, is that politics is a serious business and materially affects people’s lives, happiness and – given the disinclination of so many islanders to have children – the identity and culture of Jersey itself.

So, yes, we voters need to be more serious about our electoral rights. Having lost them once before in 1940 we should be loath to lose the right to self-determination through apathy alone. But there’s a bigger picture here too.

Guernsey is painfully becoming aware, now that hustings and more intimate district-based knowledge of deputy hopefuls has been lost under island-wide voting, that the right sort of candidate is crucial to a functioning government. By some calculations, we could see island-wide candidates returned with as few as 3,000 votes. 

As Dr Pich’s work has uncovered, calibre is key. But that’s not just for voter engagement. It’s essential for good governance and proper post-election representation of all islanders, but gets very little serious attention. That’s wrong and, from the academic research on this, has to change as part of any package of measures if Jersey is serious about improving voter engagement. 

Better candidates actually worth voting for? Now that would be liberating.