Prospective chief ministers should be expected to declare their intentions before a general election.

Garff MHK Daphne Caine will this month seek support from Tynwald for a motion that would request, but not compel, MHKs seeking the top job to declare their interest prior to facing the public.

Mrs Caine told the Examiner that the election of the island’s Chief Minister ’is not very democratic’ as the public has no active role in choosing who will run their government.

She added: ’We’re a year away from an election and some people feel really strongly disenfranchised because they don’t vote for the head of government.

’I’m saying we could, a month after a general election we have another election for Chief Minister.

’Ultimately, there are some people who feel if there was an election for Chief Minister, it would be essentially a presidential system.

’So if an individual had 30,000 votes to be Chief Minister, how could the House of Keys then remove that person if they didn’t think they were performing?’

Mrs Caine said that instead of having a debate about parliamentary and government system, her motion says that any candidate should declare their intention, however they could not be forced to do so.

The motion would, if successful, mean that, with no extra cost, potential candidates would be quizzed by the media and more importantly, the electorate.

It would also present a chance for voters to ask candidates for the Keys who they would vote for as Chief Minister.

Mrs Caine said: ’Some people might think that if we have greater success by political parties then the situation would resolve itself.

’But still what is the harm with a party leader who is standing for election with others across 12 constituencies?’

She said that her motion would help to remove the idea of Tynwald existing within a bubble where MHKs may know who will be vying to be Chief Minister before an election, but the electorate don’t.

The Garff MHK said that this motion isn’t intended to open the floodgates for a publicly elected Chief Minister, but that it ’might be an incremental step’.

Mrs Caine has also provided a link to research undertaken by Professor Peter Edge from Oxford Brookes which looked at the election of heads of state.

The report can be found at daphnecaine.im