Senator Ozouf - yes or no

Dear Rico, 

You, amongst a number of people, have asked of my intentions as to Chief Minister. 

You may be interested to see my latest post on www.ozouf.je 

I distributed this to media, spoke about in the States and have tweeted the link. 

Hope this answers your question. 

Best regards, 

Philip Ozouf

Today I made this statement to the States Assembly.

“The next States Assembly is beginning to take shape. 6 serving Senators will continue in office, 8 Constables and 3 Deputies have now been elected unopposed. 4 Senators, 26 Deputies and 4 Constables will be elected on 19th October from 82 candidates in Jersey’s largest single election.

This year, none of the candidates is representing a political party; each is seeking election as an independent with individual policies. It is vitally important that the electorate understands the individual policies of each candidate and elects or rejects on the basis of these policies, as well the skills and experience they can offer.

There has been speculation about whether or not I will declare my intention to allow my name to be proposed for Chief Minister at this time.

The process laid down for electing the Chief Minister is set out in Standing Orders. In summary: following an election, any candidate should:

i) Be nominated by at least 6 elected members;
ii) Set-out the candidate’s vision for a Strategic Policy;
iii) Set-out the manner in which he or she would propose to discharge the responsibilities as Chief Minister; then later,
Iv) Address the Assembly for 10 minutes;
V) Be questioned by elected members for 40 minutes

At that stage a ballot or ballots of members will be taken.

The appropriate time to discuss the Chief Minister role is after the elections.

This will allow the electorate to assess candidates in the forthcoming General Election fairly on their own intrinsic merits and policies rather than on the basis of an alignment behind a particular Chief Ministerial candidate.

One thing that I believe all Members will wish to see in a new Assembly is less division, with Members collectively making decisions on the basis of what is in the best interests of this Island to draw lines of division before the new Assembly has even sat.

There are a number of weeks between the Single Election Day and the Election for Chief Minister. Once the outcome of the election is known, candidates for Chief Minister should declare their interest quickly, publish their manifesto and intensive debate should follow as to their respective policies. This should include public hustings, TV and radio debates.

Whilst I have received support from a number of members, for which I am grateful. I, like other candidates, will reserve my position on whether or not to permit my name to be proposed as a candidate for Chief Minister until after the elections.

Any candidate will need to lead the Council of Ministers and ensure they get a sufficient number of members supporting to be in a position to govern Jersey in the best interests of the Island. Such a determination is not possible until after the public have elected the Assembly.

I am mindful that I am not up for election, but over the next few weeks, I will be publishing my views on a range of issues which need to be focused on over the next three years.

In the meantime I wish all candidates the very best with their elections.”

Philip Ozouf

From:

"rico sorda"

View contact details

To:

p.ozouf@gov.je

Cc:

i.lemarquand@gov.je, A.Breckon@gov.je, a.dupre@gov.je, a.green@gov.je, a.jeune@gov.je, "ben queree" , "Ben Shenton" , "Bob Hill" , c.egre@gov.je, dsimon@jerseyeveningpost.com... mo

Dear Senator Ozouf

 

Thanks for your reply

 

Havind read your press release it is just more of the same old waffle. It was like yesterdays questions without answers in the States. You cant give a straight forward yes or no.

 

You should declare now if you intend to be the next Chief Minister

 

You should be able to take the states assembly and the people of JERSEY Forward - no matter who is elected or what their political views are.

 

I will be honest Senator and say the reason you have not declared is because you lack the courage to do so. You show fear, you show fear as to how the assembly might look after the election, this should have no bearing on you declaring seeing as we don't have political parties.

 

Courage is what is required Senator

 

Do you have that courage?

 

Are you standing for Chief Minister

 

Kind Regards

 

Rico Sorda