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| Island poised for full democracy | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Final preparations are being made for historic elections on the Channel Island of Sark. | Final preparations are being made for historic elections on the Channel Island of Sark. |
| For the first time on Wednesday the entire governing body, the Chief Pleas, will be elected with 57 candidates standing for 28 seats. | |
| The changes to Sark's constitution were made to comply with human rights legislation. | |
| For more than four centuries, the island's tenants (landowners) have automatically had a seat. | For more than four centuries, the island's tenants (landowners) have automatically had a seat. |
| Education plea | |
| Sark's feudal system of government dates back to 1565 when Queen Elizabeth I allowed the first seigneur (Lord) to hold the island as a "royal fief" (inherited land). | |
| The only condition was that he guarded the island for the Crown, protecting it from pirates. | |
| The island is just three miles (4.8km) long and 1.5 miles (2.4km) wide, with a resident population of about 600. | |
| It is also car free - horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, tractors and battery-powered buggies are the only permitted forms of transport. | |
| The future role of the island's senior judge and president of the Chief Pleas, the seneschal, could be one of the first issues debated by the 28 elected members. | |
| Just eight days before the election the Court of Appeal in London ruled that the seneschal's dual role breached the "fair trial" provisions of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights. | |
| Steve Cole, who runs Avenue Cycles in Sark, said: "So many people in this island have an opinion and I hope the new members use it sensibly." | |
| Sark resident Zoe Adams said she hoped the new representatives would put education top of the agenda, but did not want the new government to get into debt. | |
| Children who have reached secondary education age have to leave the island for Guernsey or the UK mainland to continue their schooling because there are no facilities on the island. | |
| John Godwin, who has lived on Sark for 40 years, said: "Sark hasn't changed, but the people have, for the worse. | |
| "There are so many retired people here now who see Sark as a tax haven." |