Almost 1m voters missing - Labour

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 16 Januari 2015 | 16.50

16 January 2015 Last updated at 09:14

Almost one million voters are "missing" from the electoral register in England and Wales, Ed Miliband is to say.

In a speech, the Labour leader is expected to blame the "hasty" introduction of the new system of individual voter registration, with students particularly affected.

People must now register to vote individually rather one member of a household filling in a form.

Ministers say online registration has made the process easier.

But in a speech to students at Sheffield Hallam University, Mr Miliband is expected to say the number of young people not registered to vote is a "scandal".

'Warnings ignored'

Labour said 307 of 373 local authorities that provided data had recorded a reduction in their electoral roll. Overall there had been a reduction of 950,845, the party said.

Labour has claimed the number of people registered to vote has fallen sharply in many university towns, blaming in part changes which mean universities and colleges can no longer block register students living in halls of residences to vote.

The Labour leader will accuse David Cameron and Nick Clegg of "sitting by and watching hundreds of thousands of young people in our country lose their sacred democratic rights".

"This is a direct consequence of the government's decision to ignore warnings that rushing through new individual registration reforms would damage democracy," he will say. "It has.

"We will not allow this scandal to happen and no right-thinking person should either."

Labour, Mr Miliband will say, will now lead "a national mission" to stop young people "being denied a voice" at the election.

'Scaremongering'

The party said it would be deploying some of its full-time staff to university towns to try to get more students to register before 20 April deadline, after which people will not be able to register to vote in the election.

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson says Labour hopes young people will "punish" the Liberal Democrats for their U-turn on their pledge to abolish tuition fees - although he says Labour itself is making no such pledge.

The Liberal Democrats accused Labour of "scaremongering".

Tom Brake, the deputy leader of the House of Commons said: "Labour must have forgotten they began the policy of individual electoral registration while they were in government, and still support it in principle.

"Instead of scaremongering, Labour should be working with their own local authorities to ensure that the large amount of money available is spent helping people, particularly students, register to vote."

He added: "Labour also seem keen to hide the fact that the coalition government has made it extremely easy to register to vote - it can be done online in a couple of minutes."

Registration drive

The Electoral Commission has said the move to individual voter registration will "lead to a more secure electoral register".

According to the election watchdog, about 30% of 18-24 year olds are not registered to vote compared with fewer than 5% of those aged over 65.

It launched its own student voter registration drive earlier this week in conjunction with the National Union of Students, Universities UK and the Association of Colleges.

They are urging universities and colleges to ensure students are registered by the April deadline by reminding people that they can register online, holding registration sessions at the beginning of seminars and displaying posters in college buildings.

"Universities, colleges and other academic institutions are in a unique position to directly contact their students as part of this voter registration drive," said Jenny Watson, chair of the commission.

"We hope that as many academic institutions as possible will support our efforts to get students registered."


Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Almost 1m voters missing - Labour

Dengan url

http://gayabugarsehat.blogspot.com/2015/01/almost-1m-voters-missing-labour.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Almost 1m voters missing - Labour

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Almost 1m voters missing - Labour

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger