On the 15th October 2014 Electors are being asked to go to the polls and vote in Jersey's first ever General Election. (although a third of the Assembly has already been elected unopposed)
As part of this election there is also a referendum question that electors are being asked to vote on and that is "should the Constables remain as members of the States as an automatic right?" Electors are being asked to tick either the yes box or the no box.
There has been very little media coverage of this referendum, and indeed what coverage it has received has, in some cases, been misleading. This is NOT a question asking if the Constables should be in the States or not. It is asking if they should be there as an automatic right of their Office.
Due to the lack of State Media coverage concerning this crucial referendum vote, VFC invited a member from the "YES" camp, James Rondel (Committee Member for YES campaign 2014), and a member of the "NO" camp, Deputy Sam Mezec, (Deputy St. Helier No.2) to discuss the issues surrounding the referendum question, and hopefully generate some interest in it. Thankfully they both agreed and were appreciative of the opportunity to make their case for and against as I was appreciative of their engagement.
This is not so much an interview but a discussion between both camps. I did not challenge anything said by either James or Sam as it was up to them to make their case and up to readers/viewers to decide who set out the best stall.
Hopefully readers/viewers will find the debate below both engaging and informative and might get inspired to cast a vote on October 15th? The discussion is published in its entirety as this is the service offered by Citizens Media not available with the State Media.
Below the discussion video is Sam Mezec with his "piece to camera" explaining why he believes people should be voting "NO" in the referendum and below that is James Rondel's piece to camera explaining why he believes people should be voting "YES" in the referendum.