Local Elections tomorrow – almost a non-event?

A mere handful of Local Authority area electors will have the opportunity to exercise their democratic rights tomorrow (Thursday 24^th April). Only Braddan, Laxey, Marown, Onchan, and two wards in Douglas and Ramsey of the 24 Authorities have elections.

The ‘general election’ principle, introduced four years ago to encourage more interest in the elections, can hardly be considered a success; if purely judged on the basis of the number of elections.

However, a return to holding elections every year will probably be a retrograde step, unless some other hook is also introduced to entice the public to become engaged with the process. Perhaps the IOM should consider the elected ‘Mayor’ idea and do away with the Board of Commissioners or body of Councillors altogether. Who needs 160 odd local politicians for a population of 80,000 people?

Certainly this would be apt in the case of Braddan, where the voters are faced with the most intriguing scenario of having the opportunity of electing the former clerk, sacked by the Authority for serious misconduct, to sit on that Authority.

It was said at the Public Inquiry, investigating the running of the Authority in 2005, that they may as well do away with the Commissioners and have an elected clerk – as he was the person really running the Authority.

One subject that has made a strong showing is the appearance of party politics at local level for the first time, with the Liberal Vannin Party fielding quite a large selection of candidates. Whether this provides a springboard for a better showing at the next House of Key’s General Election will be interesting to observe.