Blog.

It's now been a month since we launched the End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey campaign to engage with election candidates.

We're extremely happy with the feedback and support that we have received so far from those that have responded to our campaign messages.

However, although it was another busy week in the States Assembly, the vast majority of our attempts to contact the current independent States Members that have declared thair intention to stand in the elections have gone unanswered.

Having sent hundreds of emails to many States Members over the years on a variety of topics, we are well accustomed to not receiving responses to our enquiries.

It is always frustrating to not at least receive an acknowledgement of receipt of these emails from our elected representatives. We had hoped that in the context of the upcoming elections, responses would be more forthcoming.

Given the subject matter of the End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey campaign, a lack of response could indicate that our messages have been flagged as spam by the network. However, the fact that one States Member has confirmed that they received our email suggests that this is not the case.

Looking across the current landscape of the election campaigns on social media, we find it disappointing that there is not a better appreciation of how to use these platforms to engage with the electorate.

Of the 30 candidates who have declared so far, 24 have Twitter accounts but only around a third of those are actively promoting themselves on the platform on a regular basis.

A variety of hashtags for the elections are being used by the candidates, which is problematic in itself, and they are also used on an ad hoc basis - on some messages but not others.

Many candidates have yet to provide either an email address or website by which the ECPJ and others can contact them and learn of their policy positions.

With less than 12 weeks to go until polling day, there is still much work to do across the board to improve communication so that we may all share our ideas for a better future for our Island and it's people.

À bétôt et à la préchaine,
The ECPJ Team.