Postal ballot row reaches Parliamentary climax
The government faces yet another battle with the House of Lords over the contentious issue of postal ballots in this year’s local and European elections.
Ministers want to trial postal voting in four regions of the UK, but opposition peers are refusing to back pilot ballots in the North West.
Labour must push its Local Elections (Pilots) Bill through Parliament before the Easter recess in order to give electoral officers time to prepare for postal ballots. The government proposes holding pilot ballots in the east Midlands, North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Observers predict a game of ping-pong across the houses tomorrow before the Commons rises for its break. If the row is not resolved in the next two days, the bill will be thrown out altogether and none of the postal pilots will go ahead.
Last night the government inserted an amendment into the bill governing secrecy in a bid to push it through the Lords.
Peers have rejected the bill five times, after the Electoral Commission recommended postal ballots in only two regions and claimed that the North West was not prepared for postal voting.
Commons leader Peter Hain has revealed that MPs will be given further time tomorrow if peers reject the bill for a sixth time. MPs voted to return the Bill to the Lords by 302 votes to 182 after peers threw out the trial plans by 136 to 130.
Nominations for local council and European Parliament elections close on May 13th. The elections will be held this June. Ministers hope that all-postal ballots will increase turnout, which fell to just 23 per cent in the 1999 European elections.
If pilots take place in all four regions, the ballots will affect 14 million voters.
