22 April 2004 Edition
Discriminatory electoral law must be repealed
BY FERN LANE
Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty
Sinn Féin Vice President Pat Doherty MP this week presented the Westminster 'Northern Ireland' Affairs Committee with a comprehensive document in which the systematic disenfranchisement of as many as 18% of eligible voters in the Six Counties, the majority of them from nationalist areas, is exposed.
Speaking afterwards, he said: "For an electoral process to be seen to be working fairly, basic principles have to be established. Central to that is the right to vote. At present, the situation in the Six Counties does not guarantee that right."
The paper demonstrates how, by a variety of means but principally through the introduction of politically partisan and discriminatory legislation in May 2002, the British Government could succeed in denying a total of around 231,000 people their right to vote in forthcoming elections. The 2001 Census indicated that 1,280,480 people in the Six Counties would be eligible to vote by 2004. However, after introduction of legislation only 1,069,160 voters appear on the February 2004 electoral register, a difference of over 211,000 people. In addition to this calculated failure to register new voters, the new law also imposes such severe ID restrictions on those who are registered that, according to the head of the Electoral Commission, Séamus Magee, approximately 30,000 people, if they turned out to vote, would not have the applicable ID.
The evidence also suggests that, since 2001, the discrepancy between the number of eligible voters indicated by the census and those making it onto the electoral register has increased significantly each year, a trend which seems set to continue.
In its submission to the Committee, Sinn Féin notes that the Electoral Fraud (NI) Act 2002 — a piece of legislation that does not apply in Britain and has no equivalent in the rest of Ireland — was introduced in response to unsubstantiated claims by its political opponents, most notably the UUP and the SDLP, of electoral fraud. These accusations were made in an attempt by the parties concerned to try and explain away their decline at the polls.
So far as the British Government was concerned, however, there was another imperative for introducing the legislation; this "gross interference in the electoral process" was, says Sinn Féin's paper, an attempt "to remove the number of actual or potential Sinn Féin voters on the Register of Electors and erect barriers to those who want to exercise their right to vote". This denial of the most fundamental of democratic rights to almost one in five voters amounts to institutional electoral fraud on the part of the British Government.
The British Government's motive became even more transparent after a report by the Electoral Commission in December last year, in which it stated quite clearly that "despite the fact that electoral fraud is perceived to be a major issue there are no statistics to support these widely held perceptions and there have been few if any successful prosecutions". Nevertheless, both the British Government and Sinn Féin's opponents have persisted with the claims of electoral fraud.
The Act introduced new practices that do not apply either in Britain or Ireland, such as the requirement for voters to register annually, to provide detailed personal information when applying to be placed on the register, and to produce personal identification from a restricted list of accepted photographic ID.
The cumulative effect of these new demands and restrictions is that some of the most deprived areas of the Six Counties, those which are in greatest need of proper political representation, are the worst affected. Research by the Electoral Commission revealed that the greatest decline in electoral registration has occurred in the top 20 most deprived electoral wards, of which 69% are Catholic and 27% are Protestant. This, says Sinn Féin, whilst it also affects the poorest within the Protestant community, "represents a serious, adverse impact on the Catholic/nationalist community in particular and exposes the highly political motivation behind the electoral legislation.
"The social exclusion of large sections of the electorate breaches existing anti-discrimination legislation and does so on the grounds of religious belief and political opinion."
In its submission, Sinn Féin provides a number of proposals that need to be implemented if the "undemocratic wrong" of the present system is to be rectified. Amongst other things, it demands that:
• Household registration should replace the new individual registration scheme, in line with electoral practice in Britain and the rest of Ireland.
• Voter registration should be carried out annually and voters should remain on the register for five years.
• A far broader range of identity documents should be acceptable.
• Voter registration forms should be made more widely available to the public through media such as post offices, libraries, educational establishments and through political parties.
• Electoral courts, which are used in a highly politicised and discriminatory manner in the Six Counties, should be abolished.
• Registration should be allowed up to seven days before polling day.
"The legislation must be changed," says Pat Doherty. "The present situation cannot be allowed to continue. There is an obligation on the British Government to amend this disastrous piece of discriminatory legislation and begin the process of restoring confidence in the electoral process."