Draft:Deputy Reed's Paradox

Submission declined on 19 April 2025 by Mcmatter (talk).

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Declined by Mcmatter 2 months ago. Last edited by Faramir77 2 months ago. Reviewer: Inform author.

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Comment: None of the sources seem to use this term so this seems to be a term coined by you and has not been discussed. McMatter ^(talk)/_(contrib) 15:33, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest policy, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. Faramir77 (talk) 14:02, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

Deputy Reed's Paradox is a thought experiment devised by David Reed, an intended candidate in the 2025 elections in Guernsey and is a new election mechanic that will appear on the ballot. It is a mechanic brought about as a result of a loophole created by Guernsey's island-wide voting rules and the provisions around by-elections should a vacant seat arise. [1]

Deputy Candidate David Reed identified a loophole whereby he is running a campaign with the explicit promise to leave a vacant seat which, due to a quirk in the by-election laws, would not trigger a by-election to actually fill that seat. The loophole exists because under Island-wide voting, should there be a vacancy, there is no other mechanism to fill that vacant seat, it can only be filled by way of an island-wide by-election [2]. However in May 2024, the Assembly approved amendments to the by-election provisions under the law, meaning that a by-election would only be triggered if there was more than 1 vacant seat [3].

These provisions result in situation in which a candidate can campaign with the explicit intention to leave their seat vacant for the duration of that term and so has drafted a manifesto on that basis. His motive is that as the potential exists in law for this situation to arise then an option should exist on the ballot to allow voters to choose this option if those so wish, enhancing the power of democracy in the process by giving another way for voters to express their preferences democratically [4][5]

In his manifesto he has promised to do nothing and not be sworn in and so leave a vacant seat. If he is elected on the basis of that commitment he would be unable to be sworn into office as he would be in breach of Rule 6 of the Members Code of Conduct in which Deputies promise to honour the trust in them as voted by the public.[6][7] Deputy Reed would be trapped in a situation where the only way for him to fulfil his duty to the public is by not being sworn in. He would be trapped in Deputy Reed's Paradox.

References

https://sites.google.com/view/votedavidreed https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/news-ge/election-date-set-spending-rules-remain-air/ https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/news-ge/deputy-le-tissiers-removal-would-result-election/ https://www.gov.gg/memberscodeofconduct