Lords backs down in postal ballot wrangle
Postal voting will take place in four regions of the UK during this year’s European Parliament and local council elections.
Opposition peers backed down at the last minute and voted to back the government plans to pilot postal voting in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands and the North West.
The House of Lords had thrown the European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill out five times, opposing postal ballots in the North West after the Electoral Commission advised against it.
Ministers wrote several concessions into the Bill at the last minute as they became more pressed to push the legislation through Parliament before the start of the Easter recess. Peers eventually voted 138 to 108 to back postal schemes in all four areas.
Had the Bill not been accepted yesterday, electoral officers would not have been given enough time to prepare postal ballots and the whole pilot scheme would have been under threat. Nominations for the elections close on May 13th. The bill is now due to go for Royal Assent.
Peers were concerned that postal voting could lead to widespread electoral fraud, particularly in the North West, while ministers hope that postal ballots will increase electoral turnout, which fell to just 23 per cent in the 1999 European elections.
A Department of Constitutional Affairs spokesman said after the vote: “At last, electoral administrators have the green light to put in place preparations for these very important all-postal pilot elections. We are confident that regional returning officers can now deliver successful pilots.”
Postal ballots for the June elections will cover an estimated 14 million voters.
