ST HELENA CONTEMPLATES CHANGE

St Helena was voting on Wednesday March 17th in a consultative poll on governance reform.

The question to the public was if the current Governance System should be changed, and if so, whether it should be changed to a Revised Committee System or a Ministerial System.

The St Helena Government and the Legislative Assembly had described the poll as important and historic for the territory.

“We hope that as many voters as possible turn out on Polling Day to have their say on St Helena’s future system of Governance – whether that be to keep the Current System or implement a Revised Committee or Ministerial System,” the government said.

The territory does not have an elected Chief Minister with the Governor functioning as the head of government.

A previous referendum in 2013 proposing a Chief Councillor elected by the members of the Legislative Council and other nominated members of the Executive Council was defeated by 158 votes to 42 on a 10% turnout.

The St Helena Government is made up of 8 directorates and the Legislative Council consists the Speaker and Deputy Speaker along with 15 members, 12 of whom are elected.