Borders servicemen and women set to miss out on election

10.14.09am GMT Tue 23rd Feb 2010

Changes to voting rules which would help ensure Borders servicemen and women operating abroad have the opportunity to vote in the forthcoming General Election are required urgently, according to local MP Michael Moore.

Current regulations mean that there are only 11 days in which postal ballots can be printed, dispatched and returned to be included in constituency counts. Mr Moore is concerned that this could leave thousands of people serving in the armed forces overseas unable to register their vote. Those missing out could include men and women from the Royal Scots Borderers who are currently on operations in Afghanistan.

Mr Moore is backing a Liberal Democrat motion calling for the General Election timetable to be brought into line with that for local elections, where candidates are nominated 16 days before polling day. It is hoped that this change would help ease logistical difficulties.

Mr Moore has been an active campaigner on forces issues for many years. Last month, he introduced a Parliamentary Bill that would have forced Ministers to improve the level of services offered to veterans around the UK.

Commenting, Mr Moore said:

‘The men and women of our armed forces serving overseas risk their lives on a daily basis. It is only proper that they should be able to exercise the democratic rights that they are fighting to protect.

‘The Government has asked more and more of our service personnel for many years. Changing election rules so that forces votes can be counted is the least that Ministers can do to recognise the sacrifices they make on our behalf.’

Notes:

The full text of EDM 862 is as follows:

ARMED FORCES VOTING

That this House expresses concern that a third of service personnel are not currently registered to vote; notes the difficulties which many servicemen and women experience in voting; further notes that the extremely tight timetable for a general election with candidates only being nominated 11 days before polling day, does not leave enough time thereafter for postal ballot papers to be printed, distributed to service personnel deployed abroad, particularly those who are at present in Afghanistan, and returned in time to be included in constituency counts; and calls on the Government to amend the timetable for general elections to match the local election timetable, with candidates being nominated 16 days before polling day, thus easing the logistical barrier to service personnel exercising their right to vote.