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Lib Dem peers challenge “outrageous gerrymander” by Tories

by Ian Shires on 23 July, 2015

The Government has ignored Electoral Commission advice and brought forward changes to the way we register to vote. Individual electoral registration was brought in during the last Parliament, but electoral registers would have contained existing data until 1 December 2016. They have now moved this forward to 1 December this year.

Liberal Democrat peers didn’t miss this announcement sneaking out as MPs and Peers head off for Summer recess and they have laid down motions in both houses of Parliament to try to defeat it.

The Guardian has the details;

The Electoral Commission had advised the government in June to spend another year transferring voters on the old household-based register to the new individual register, but ministers want to short-circuit the process so that it is completed by December 2015, and not the end of 2016. The commission says there are 1.9 million names on the household register that are not on the individual register

The cleaned-up register will form the basis of the parliamentary constituency boundary review to be conducted before the 2020 election that will both reduce the number of seats and see a redrawing of the boundaries in favour of the Conservatives.

Although this is clearly an issue for the Boundary Review, surely this will also drop nearly 2 million people off the register for the European Referendum if it happens before 1 December 2016. Might that give an advantage to one side or the other? Given that it’s most likely to be young people who drop off the register, it could minimise the Yes vote.

The paper quotes Paul Tyler as saying:

Ministers should be thoroughly ashamed of this sneaky initiative, just before the long summer recess, trying to avoid proper parliamentary scrutiny.

We anticipate support from all the other opposition parties in the Commons, and also crossbenchers in the Lords, precisely because such changes to electoral law should avoid partisan advantage and seek consensus.

If the Tories are defeated on such an order – which is unusual but not unprecedented – they will only have themselves to blame for what looks all too like an outrageous gerrymander.

It seems very foolish indeed for a government to ignore the recommendation of the Electoral Commission which could not be clearer:

The implementation of the new registration system has gone well so far. But taking into account the data and evidence which is available to us at this point, and the scale and importance of the polls scheduled for next May, we are disappointed at the Government’s announcement and still recommend that the end of transition should take place in December 2016 as set out in law. We therefore recommend that Parliament does not approve this order. If Parliament decides to bring forward the end of transition we will, of course, work with Electoral Registration Officers, the Government and others to ensure the associated risks are managed as well as possible.

If Alex Salmond had sought to ignore the Commission’s advice on any aspect of the independence referendum, you can imagine what the reaction of Tory Ministers would be.

It’s good to see that our lot have their eyes firmly on the ball.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron’s Musings

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