‘Solutions needed to Electoral Register situation’ – Murphy

Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy has welcomed the Electoral Commission’s report published into the current state of the register here.

Speaking to Newry Times, Murphy insisted that people will be ‘rightly alarmed’ at the findings of this report. “What it clearly shows is rates of inaccuracy or “incompleteness” up to 29% or 400,000 people not registered at the correct address.

“What is required from the Electoral Office are solutions to this serious problem. That means making it easier to get onto the register, involving the councils in the registration process and the political parties who have a vested interest and looking at online registration.

Murphy continued, “Automatically placing new voters onto the register would also seem a sensible way to proceed. Sinn Féin predicted back in 2002 when the current legislation was passed that this would be the inevitable outcome. At that time our concerns were dismissed both by the electoral authorities and the other political parties.

“Since then we have mounted our own permanent registration campaign with a view to addressing many of the problems. We would propose that a wide consultation is carried out, similar to the “on-the-road” consultations carried out by Boundary Commissioner to seek the views of the public and the political parties on the entirety of the registration and voting process.

He added, “While the “Research Report” is to be welcomed it is far from complete.

“Sinn Féin will seek meetings with both the Electoral Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer in the coming period to discuss the findings of the report but more importantly will be placing effective new measures in place to rectify the problem and get the register fit for purpose.”

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Posted by Newry Times News on Nov 29 2012. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry