Dealing with the Manx democratic deficit: Looking to the Andorran multi-party model

This is a guest post for Reayrtys by Joe O’Hanlon, a lawyer originally from Northern Ireland and now working in Dublin, who has an interest in the constitutional frameworks of small, self-governing countries like the Isle of Man.

Some commentators on Manx politics, like Alistair Ramsey, have argued that there is a democratic deficit in the Manx political system. With few exceptions, members of the House of Keys are elected as independents; voters in elections to the House of Keys are therefore not voting on pre-agreed national policy platforms; and thus there is in practice no proper electoral mandate for national policies that may be agreed by Tynwald.

Mr Ramsey argues: “MHKs operate at a national level with no mandate and no accountability. This freedom is convenient for them, but the general public is disenfranchised.” Mr Ramsey argues that a national political framework could be achieved “through the growth of parties, public election of the Chief Minister, or even making the Isle of Man one big constituency”.

This article seeks to advance the conversation on the first of those potential changes: the growth of parties, by examining the potential precedent of the Andorran multi-party model for the Isle of Man. It focuses on elections to the House of Keys, which is directly elected by the Manx people, and does not discuss the indirectly elected second chamber of Tynwald, the Legislative Council.

It should be noted of course as a preliminary point that there has already been limited development of party politics on the Isle of Man. The Manx Labour Party was founded in 1918, and has intermittently won a small number of seats in the House of Keys since then, with for instance 2 seats following the 2021 general election. The liberal party Liberal Vannin was founded in 2006, and has fought every general election since then, although with minimal success. Its highpoint was the 2011 general election with 3 MHKs elected; the party now has only 1 MHK (following the 2021 general election). There is also a Manx Green Party, which currently has no MHKs, but holds two seats at local authority level.

Notwithstanding the existence of these political parties, the Isle of Man political system is still characterised by the overwhelming preponderance of independent, non-party affiliated members of the House of Keys. Of the 24 MHKs elected in 2021, only 3 are affiliated with a political party, with 21 being independent, including the Speaker, and all 9 members of the Council of Ministers.

This can be contrasted with the situation in another small state, the Principality of Andorra, which in many other ways is very similar to the Isle of Man. Andorra, like the Isle of Man, is an international business centre with a highly developed financial sector, which offers lower corporate and personal taxes than neighbouring jurisdictions. Andorra, like the Isle of Man, has its own national parliament, and is not a member of the EU. Whilst the Isle of Man has a current population of 84,160 (2024), Andorra has a slightly smaller overall current population of 81,938 (2024).

But one interesting and significant difference between these two otherwise relatively similar jurisdictions is that somewhat surprisingly considering its small size, Andorra has a very vibrant and robust party political system.

The General Council of Andorra is the unicameral parliament of Andorra, and has 28 general councillors. The general councillors are elected for four-year terms based on party lists in a list system:

• two general councillors from each of the seven parishes, elected from the list with most votes in each parish; and 

• fourteen general councillors elected from national lists using proportional representation.

Clearly the use of a list system as the Andorran electoral system has encouraged the development of party politics. Furthermore, in the Andorran Constitution (1993), in Chapter IV (Political rights of Andorran nationals), Article 26 provides that: “Andorrans have the right freely to create political parties”. Potentially this explicit constitutional right may also have contributed to the development of the Andorran party political system.

Of the 28 members of the General Council elected in the last general election in 2023, 27 are members of political parties, and only 1 general councillor is an independent. There are 5 political parties of distinct political persuasions currently represented in the Andorran parliament.

The current Andorran government consists of a coalition between 2 political parties, Demòcrates per Andorra (Democrats for Andorra), a centrist pro-business party with 13 general councillors: Ciutadans Compromesos (Committed Citizens), a centrist regionalist party (based in the parish of La Massana) with 3 general councillors; and an independent general councillor.

The current Andorran opposition consists of 3 political parties: Concòrdia (Concord), a progressive and environmentalist nationalist party, with 5 general councillors; the Partit Socialdemòcrata (Social Democratic Party), a leftwing party with 3 general councillors; and Andorra Endevant (Andorra Forward), a rightwing populist party with 3 general councillors.

Amongst the apparently large number of Andorran political parties that have been represented in the General Council in the past are Third Way, a conservative party; the Liberals of Andorra (formerly known as Liberal Union); and the Lauredian Union, a localist party based in the parish of St Julia de Loria.

There appear to be 10 political parties currently registered on the Registry of Political Parties (Registre de partits politics), maintained by the Andorran Government – registration on the Register is compulsory for Andorran political parties, under Law 19/2014, of 18 September, on political parties and electoral financing.

Monitoring of certain Andorran news sources (the newspaper 'El Diari d’Andorra'; the news website altaveu.com; and the Andorran national broadcaster rtva.ad) suggests that issues like high cost of living; high cost of rent; and shortage of affordable housing are key political issues for the Andorran electorate who will next be voting in a general election in 2027 - interestingly, similar issues seem to be of current concern to the Manx public.

Recent opinion polls for the 2027 general election suggest dissatisfaction with the current Andorran government, with the current governing coalition  underperforming its 2023 result, and Concord; the Social Democratic Party; and Andorra Forward performing strongly.

It would be interesting for detailed research to be done to help understand precisely why the Andorran party political system is so vibrant for such a small state, and whether lessons might be transferable to the Isle of Man.

The introduction of a “list” system of voting (similar to that currently used in Andorra) could, overnight, transform Manx politics. Of course, there could potentially be negative aspects connected to excessively partisan party politics in a small jurisdiction, eg excessive division, and damage to social cohesion. However, on balance having such having a similarly vibrant party political system may well be an important step in ameliorating the democratic deficit in the Isle of Man.