North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell has today highlighted his concern at the news that a third of service personnel are not currently registered to vote. For those who are registered, a short election campaign may mean they do not have enough time to use a postal vote.
Commenting, Sir Menzies said:
“It is unfortunate but not surprising that so many of our serving personnel are not registered to vote. Many will have joined the Forces before they were eligible to vote and regular deployments overseas or to different parts of the UK make it hard for servicemen and women to make sure they are on the electoral register at any given point. Some may be unaware that they can use a postal vote, register as a ‘service voter’ or to nominate someone to vote in their place by proxy.
“For those who are registered to vote in the coming election but who are serving overseas, even casting a vote can be logistically extremely difficult. But for those who are fighting to spread democracy and aid free elections in places like Afghanistan it is only right that every effort is made to ensure they can vote in British elections.
“The General Election could be called any day now. I have written to the Ministry for Defence to ask what it is doing to ensure signing up does not mean signing away your right to vote.â€
