Two Lib Dem MPs expected to stand for the leadership of the party have called for action after EU citizens were denied the right to vote on Thursday because local authorities hadn’t properly processed their applications. The Guardian reports that the Government may face action:
The government is facing calls to launch an urgent investigation into the treatment of EU citizens in the European elections after many people reported being denied their democratic right to vote.
Voters across the country told of their devastation at finding their names crossed off the register due to clerical errors by local councils. Experts said the situation was a “scandal we knew was coming” and that the government may have a case to answer in court.
The affected voters said they felt they were being “silenced” as this was the only election they had a right to participate in, being ineligible to vote in the referendum or general elections.
Our two as yet undeclared expected leadership candidates have had strong words to say on the subject.
Ed Davey put out a call for evidence from those affected.
Victims of #DeniedMyVote -we need your evidence. This is an outrage and a full investigation is needed.
Help us by:
✅Adding your evidence points into the thread
✅Checking you were correctly registered
✅Alerting other EU nationals@catherinemep & I are building out your case https://t.co/X8T8T8h8TL— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) May 25, 2019
And Jo Swinson called for an investigation:
https://twitter.com/joswinson/status/1131988877873426432
If you experienced problems, or know someone who did, let us know in the comments below.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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9 Comments
I have not receive postal vote letter after over 3 weeks since applying and under 24th of May.
Eu Citizens were fully aware that the UK was leaving the EU. Had that occurred on the date set no eu elections would of taken place in this country. It is only because MP’s who were elected to respect the referendum result have failed to respect those who elected them we have been forced to engage in this charade costing every single tax paper in the UK. Anyone with ANY common sense would not of expected to be voting. Answer TOUGH!
Phil Winwood,
I thought you brexiters were all for democracy. UK citizens were also aware that the UK would be leaving the EU. They’ve been allowed to vote. EU citizens with the right to vote have been refused this right.
I’m a UK citizen living in Europe at the moment. I’m registered to vote but I didn’t receive my voting card. The same thing happened with the referendum. The answer isn’t TOUGH! The answer is a rerun of the corrupt referendum.
The Brexiteers in the EU campaign complained of democracy being robbed. Very little about anything else. Have they lost the discussion except for this? Without a strong economy we all loose (except for Tory donors ,millionaires,paper owners et al).One scenario with this is the trouble at Scunthorpe.
Democracy is robbed and hi jacked if ALL cannot take part, stopping one section from voting and saying TOUGH could lead to YOU being next.
It is truly shocking that people have been robbed of their right to vote due to the incompetence and inefficiency of the Electoral Commission (yet again showing that it is not fit for purpose), the Government, and local authorities. The fact is that local authorities have been preparing for these elections for months, long before it was certain they would take place. It is deeply ironic (if not sinister) that the people who have been deprived of votes are people exercising their right to free movement within the EU, in both directions. A lot of people are very very angry and rightly so.
I should add that I put down a holding question in the Lords just before the recess and will be following it up, along with colleagues.
I registered to vote in Cyprus just before the deadline. It was unclear at that time whether the UK would have left the EU, but the advice was to register, and if the UK did leave, then voters who held UK passports would be removed from the register before today’s vote.
All very straightforward and easy to understand, made easier by the fact that all this could be done by going to my local Citizens Service Centre and talking to a human being!
But of course the UK has ‘modernised’ public services. So you have to go onlone, download PDFs, and if you do want to speak to someone, you have to ring a call centre, wait for ages listening to Vivaldi, then get put on hold while the person you do eventually speak to Asia someone else!
This constant transferring to putting everything ‘on the net’ I believe is counter productive It is constantly shown as being easy to corrupt .faulty. Just notice what happens in Supermarkets when the system breaks down!? It is machine orientated. Machines break down. Yes it saves money but it also causes frustration etc. as Steve Comer says it dehumanises makes us into just numbers. We need more human face contact,not less.
EU citizens in Southend on Sea were denied their votes. A close friend tried to vote on Thursday. He had registered and was on the list but with his name crossed through. It was around 5pm and the polling station refused to refer it to their returning officer because they said the office would be closed. Voter was turned away. The official was asked if there had been others and they said yes, others also turned away.