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Restoring integrity to the Electoral System
18/03/2008
Standards Committee calls for its recommendations on restoring integrity to the Electoral system to be implemented following the judgement of the electoral petition relating to the local elections held in Slough on 3 May 2007.
Following the judgement by Election Commissioner Richard Mawrey QC handed down on 18 March in the matters of Local Government elections for the Slough Central Ward of the Slough Borough Council held on 3 May 2007, Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life commented:
“This latest example of electoral fraud in Slough at last year's local government elections highlights the need for fundamental changes to our electoral system as recommended by my Committee in its Eleventh Report on the Electoral Commission.
Electoral fraud is not a trivial matter. It is an affront to the democratic principle of one-person one vote. Left unchecked it will eventually undermine trust and confidence in the democratic process and by implication the electorate's consent to the outcome of elections.
This case has shown that the safeguards introduced by the Government to combat electoral fraud particularly in relation to postal voting are easily bypassed because of the fundamental weaknesses in the current system of electoral registration. The current system of household registration has no robust safeguards to stop bogus names being registered and then to be used as fraudulent postal votes.
In the Eleventh Report my Committee called for the Government and the other main political parties to reach agreement so as to introduce a system of individual registration similar to that already in place in Northern Ireland immediately following the next General Election.
The benefits of individual registration include:
- Individuals taking personal responsibility for registering just as they have to apply personally for other public and private services;
- The register reflecting more accurately those individuals who are entitled to be registered;
- Greater accuracy that will help to restore integrity to the registration process; and
- If combined with other measures such as an objective personal identifier will help minimise electoral fraud.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life wants to see an electoral system that is free, fair and secure and will continue to press the Government for an indication of an early commitment to put in place the changes that are required to secure this objective. The recommendations the Committee has made on the integrity of the electoral system in its Eleventh Report will, I believe, if implemented, restore integrity and confidence in the democratic health of our country.”
See the full press release in our Press Notices section.
