THE HOUSE of Lords held a debate on electoral reform last week following a campaign to abolish the ‘15 year rule’ that meant any Briton living abroad for more than 15 years lost the right to vote in British elections.
Lord Lexden, the official historian of the Conservative Party, described the 15-year limit for expat Brits living abroad as a “…problem that had been allowed to go on for far too long.” He declared Britain’s policy on expat voting as “unjust” and compared it to other democratic nations such as the US or France, where citizens are granted lifelong voting rights regardless of where they chose to reside. “No other leading democracy takes as restrictive an approach as our country,” Lord Lexden stated during the debate, “… it is high time the United Kingdom joined the international consensus.”
DEDICATED CAMPAIGN
The Conservatives Abroad Association has one of the organisations spearheading the campaign to change the voting rights of British expats abroad and many of the estimated 5.6 million British expats currently living abroad argue that disenfranchisement is a violation of their rights.
During the last year, there has been added pressure on the Government to revisit this issue and a dedicated campaign group, Vote for Expats, was set up to encourage Britons living abroad to write to their old MPs as well as government ministers and European politicians to express their discontent.
POSTAL VOTES
Lord Lexden said the changes in voting rights for expats had “chopped and changed” considerably during the last twenty years; changes which he said were “without rationale.” He said: “Our fellow citizens abroad are surely entitled to a firm, stable set of arrangements; instead they have been subject to arbitrary upheavals.”
Viscount Astor supported Lord Lexden during the debate, raising the issue of postal voting following the shambles that occurred during the last election when many expats who had registered for postal votes did not receive their ballot papers in time to return them. His Lordship commented: “These people are basically being disenfranchised every time an election is held,” adding, “Many people go abroad or work abroad, but that does not mean to say that they have lost interest in this country… They should be able to take part in our electoral system.”
Lord Lexden concluded his part of the debate by asking that the Government abolished the time limit as part of their planned reforms of the electoral system.
