Election expense limits (FOI)

Request

Please can I have a breakdown of the total election expense limits for the May 2018 election for Senators, Deputies (by district) and Constable.

This is not a request for a breakdown of election expenses, but asking what the final calculated limits were for May 2018 for the Senators and for each district as that does not appear to be anywhere available.

The Judicial Greffe has actual election expenses available on request but does not have details in the file of the maximum limits to expenditure.

Response

The restriction on a candidate’s election expenses is prescribed in paragraph (1) of Article 4 of the Public Elections (Expenditure and Donations) (Jersey) Law 2014 which states:

4 Restriction on candidate’s election expenses

(1) A candidate’s election expenses shall not exceed, in the aggregate –

(a) where the candidate is a candidate for election as Senator, £2,800, or, where the candidate is a candidate for election as Deputy or Connétable, £1,700; and

(b) 11 pence for each person entitled to vote in the election by virtue of, as the case requires, Article 2(1), (1A), (2) or (3) of the 2002 Law.

In order to calculate the contribution to the level of the cap on expenses which comes from Article 4(1)(b) above it is necessary to know the number of people entitled to vote in the particular district. The total number of persons on the register is published in the Results and Statistics sections of the elections website at the following link:

Results 2018 / Statistics 2018

For your convenience here are the expenses limits for the May 2018 elections calculated based on the numbers of people reported as entitled to vote in each election:

Reference

The Public Elections (Expenditure and Donations) (Jersey) Law 2014