A former chief minister says he is strongly against allowing the public to choose their own Chief Minister.
Tony Brown was speaking as he and Howard Quayle appeared before the Constitutional and Legal Affairs and Justice Committee.
Asked by Lawrie Hooper about how Chief Ministers are elected, Mr Brown said he was strongly against the proposal.
“You’d have a dictator, simple as that,” Mr Brown said.
“Just imagine I get elected across the island as the Chief Minister of the Isle of Man, and I get 40,000 votes, and you in your constituency have got 3,000 votes, and you try and tell me off.
“I can tell you what my answer will be.”
Will of Tynwald
Mr Brown also defended the current system, where the Chief Minister relies on Tynwald’s support: “The beauty about our system is the Chief Minister knows he’s only there, basically at the will of Tynwald… it’s only till we can kick him out.”
Howard Quayle echoed the concerns, stressing the need for legislative consensus: “The Chief Minister needs to work with Tynwald.
“You’re not a dictator, if Tynwald has voted on a Chief Minister, then they have the broad support.”
Both leaders cited risks of populism. Mr Quayle added: “We’re seeing in a distant country what happens when the public elects someone and what they’re doing to that country at the moment.”
Mr Brown painted a stark scenario where a person decides to stand to be the Chief Minister having never been in Tynwald, he said “they haven’t got a clue about how Tynwald works, but they’ve been elected to be the Chief Minister—it would be absolute mayhem.”
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