Isle of Man General Election 2021: Government ministers ousted by voters

The Manx General Election was held in the Isle of Man (Manx: Mannin) yesterday on 23 September 2021. The election is for members of the 'House of Keys' (MHK’s), which is the directly elected lower house of Tynwald (Manx: Tinvaal), the parliament of the Isle of Man. The Manx-language name of the House of Keys is 'Yn Kiare as Feed' meaning 'The Four and Twenty', as the House has 24 members. Most elected members do not represent a political party and stand as independents. The background to this election has been widespread discontent about the performance of the present Manx government on a wide range of social, environmental, planning and economic issues.

This public dissatisfaction has been a contributory factor in yesterday’s election seeing four government ministers and three other MHKs losing their seats. Environment Minister Geoffrey Boot and Policy and Reform Minister Ray Harmer were both ousted in the Glenfaba and Peel constituency. Infrastructure Minister Tim Baker lost in the Ayre and Michael constituency, while Home Affairs Minister Graham Cregeen was voted out in Arbory, Castletown and Malew. A welcome outcome was that ten women were elected into the House of Keys which is double the number of female representatives voted into the administration at the last election in 2016.  

The fear though is that not much will change after this election, despite all of the promises made by candidates in the run up to the vote. It therefore remains important that the Manx people continue to be vigilant in holding their political representatives to account. Accountability is a part of good governance and the idea of democracy is not that those elected and governments can do whatever they like during their term of office. They have to respond to public concerns and the power of people to influence government decisions has been demonstrated in recent months in the Isle of Man. In particular on a matter of the conservation of trees where a successful public campaign was undertaken.

The role of campaigning and pressure groups is important in any functioning democracy. In the Isle of Man there are a number of progressive organisations campaigning on environmental, social and economic issues. Such organisations need to be strengthened. Not only to raise and campaign on important issues, but also as a counterbalance to certain other lobbying groups whose influence can be negative. In particular criticism has been levelled at the present Manx administration’s willingness to be overinfluenced by entirely commerce based groups whose motivation is primarily greed and self interest. In the years ahead it is important for the new Manx government to be held accountable and that their decisions are made in the best interest of the Island, the environment, all of its people and its culture.