Public election of the Chief Minister could give the role greater democratic legitimacy, according to an expert on Manx politics.

Dr Peter Edge says the move would be consistent with the view, held in relation to the Legislative Council, that legitimacy can only be achieved through direct election.

The Chief Minister is indirectly elected via the House of Keys, as are Members of the Legislative Council. There have been repeated calls for MLCs to be popularly elected in the interests of democracy, but the argument has been applied less often to the position of Chief Minister.

Dr Edge, professor of law at Oxford Brookes University, considered this aspect of the democratic debate when he delivered the UCM annual constitution lecture at the Nunnery.

Originally from the Isle of Man, he has researched a range of small jurisdictions around the world.

’In a small state there is an argument for involving the public in directly electing the Chief Minister’, said Dr Edge, ’This would fit with the 21st century emphasis on democratic accountability with regard to the Legislative Council, and the belief that the only legitimacy in the Manx system comes from direct election.’

His talk focussed on the important relationship in democracies between the legislature (parliament) and executive (government). There are two common models for this relationship: the presidential, where the two sides are separate and the executive derives its authority from the people rather than the legislature; and the Westminster model, where the executive’s authority comes from the legislature.

Dr Edge explained that the Westminster model was found throughout the former British Empire along with a system of ’responsible government’, with a local executive accountable to the local parliament.

Although the Isle of Man has had public elections since 1866, it was not given ’responsible government’ until after the Second World War, when executive power began to be transferred from the Lieutenant Governor to members of Tynwald. Prior to this change it was the Manx tradition to have a head of government who was not accountable to Tynwald.

Dr Edge suggested the Isle of Man could consider the example of Kiribati, a small island state in the Pacific which operates a unique hybrid of the Westminster and presidential models.

In this former British colony the head of government is elected by the public in a separate national election held following the general election for the parliament. Candidates for government leader must come from the newly elected parliament and be nominated by it, giving the legislature a degree of control over the process.

Supporters of the system say the public are more likely to back government’s policies because they are involved in choosing its leader.

In Kiribati the head of government can be ejected by the parliament through a vote of no confidence, though this step also triggers a fresh general election and puts members out of a job too. Dr Edge described this mechanism for dealing with clashing mandates as ’a nuclear red button’.

He noted that a vote of no confidence in Kiribati could be passed by a bare parliamentary majority. In the Isle of Man removal of the Chief Minister requires a two-thirds majority in the House of Keys.

He said concern that most members of Tynwald also belonged to the government was ’very fair criticism’ and added: ’We are very unusual in that respect.’ He also revealed that compared to other small jurisdictions the Isle of Man does not have a particularly high number of national politicians per head of population.