Guernsey by-election nominations open

Nominations for candidates wishing to stand in a by-election to fill one seat in Guernsey's States have opened.

Anyone wanting to be elected needs to submit a form to the Royal Court before 16:30 on 25 March. BBC Guernsey will publish a full list of the candidates afterwards.

The form needed to be signed by both a proposer, a seconder, and the candidate, all of whom needed to be on the electoral roll, officials said.

The poll, to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of disgraced former Chief Minister Jonathan Le Tocq, is due to take place on 29 April.

To vote, people need to be signed up to the electoral roll.

Anyone who signed up ahead of the general election last year is already on the list.

However, if anyone who wanted to sign up and did not last time around, they had until 25 April and could can sign up online, election managers said.

People aged 16 and over can vote.

Whether already on the roll or applying for the first time, anyone wanting to apply for a postal vote must do so before 10 April.

Polls will open at 08:00 BST on 29 April and voters will be able to vote at one of four polling stations:

• Beau Sejour
• St Martin's Parish Hall
• Castel Douzaine Room
• Vale Douzaine Room

Polls will close at 20:00 and counting will start immediately after they close, unlike at the general election last year, where counting began the next day.

Officials said they hoped to make a declaration before midnight, as each person voting would only have one vote and turnout was usually lower at by-elections than at general elections.

There will not be a manifesto booklet sent around by the States. Instead each candidate will have their manifesto uploaded to the by-election website.

The States Assembly and Constitution Committee (SACC) will also provide a small pool of money to assist the parishes with holding hustings events.

It has said: "The local media will provide significant coverage, as they did in June last year."

The SACC said the election would cost £75,000 at most. This followed warnings from some politicians it could end up costing almost £500,000, which SACC said was well off the mark.

Last year's general election cost taxpayers £1.15m to organise.

Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.