Prescott accused of “breathtaking complacency”
The Conservative’s Deputy Leader has accused John Prescott of “breathtaking complacency” over the progress of the all-postal ballots.
Standing in for Tony Blair at Prime Minister’s Question Time Mr Prescott said voting numbers have increased as a result of the pilots.
Mr Prescott said voting numbers have already increased in the North East and North West by around six per cent, Yorkshire and Humber by eight per cent and the East Midlands by seven per cent.
He claimed this would result in an extra million people participating in the elections, potentially rising to two million.
Figures released later suggested that the turn out may already exceed that in the 1999 European elections by around seven per cent.
Michael Ancram though pointed to allegations of fraud, voting irregularities and intimidation in the all-postal areas.
He said: “It’s not just about turnout it’s about the integrity of the system, it’s about confidence, it’s about trust, it’s about no corruption and it’s about people being able to exercise their vote.”
Mr Ancram strongly criticised the Government’s plans to press ahead with all-postal ballots in Autumn’s referendums for regional assemblies.
He argued that Mr Prescott’s response showed “breathtaking complacency” considering that there are reports of councils being forced to set up emergency polling stations as postal voters have not yet received their ballot papers.
The Deputy Prime Minister however strongly defended the voting experiment and said that any evidence of malpractice would be treated “harshly”.
The Electoral Commission will be writing a report about the success of the pilot projects, which the Government has pledged to study closely.
There have been suggestions that the elections results could be open to legal challenge if margins are tight and there are a number of disputed votes.
