Flickr/Keith Bacongco
, CC BY 2.0
This afternoon, hot on the heels of yesterday's vote on tax credits, comes another Lords motion against a government statutory instrument. In this case, it is not people’s livelihoods at stake, but the long-term health of British democracy. And although as of this morning the motion's backers are reasonably confident of victory, the main political parties are so viscerally divided on the issue that the prospect for enlightened progress seems remote.
Individual electoral registration was introduced in Northern Ireland in 2002 to tackle voter intimidation and fraud, and a year later the Electoral Commission recommended the system to be adopted across the whole of the UK, bringing Britain in line with other Western democracies (Zimbabwe is one of the few countries to operate a head of household system). After much delay, during which time were recorded instances of fraud that “would disgrace a banana republic” in Birmingham and repeated concerns about vote-rigging in Tower Hamlets, IER passed into law under Labour in 2009.
The Coalition was divided over implementation, with Conservatives favouring a largely voluntary register while Lib-Dems insisted on a compulsory one which councils would have a duty to chase up. An agreement was reached, including a transitional period when electors from whom councils had not heard to confirm their details would be “retained” on the roll; originally to last until the 2015 general election, this was extended on amendment to December 2016, pending progress with the new roll. In June, the Commission announced that there were 1.9 million “retained” names from the household survey which did not appear on the individual electoral roll and recommended a December 2016 deadline. The Minister for the Constitution John Penrose ignored this and brought forward the date to complete transition to December 2015. Exceptionally, the Commission expressed "disappointment" at the Government’s exercise of this option, warning that some electors would be left unable to vote in 2016 elections.
