Election deadlines 'should be longer' - watchdog » Local Government » 24dash.com

Longer deadlines should be set for holding by-elections and general elections, polling watchdogs said today.

In four recent by-elections, tight timescales meant some people may have missed out on the chance to vote and placed an unnecessary burden on administrators, said the Electoral Commission.

And the commission repeated a previous recommendation for the UK parliamentary election timetable, which can be as little as 15 working days, to be extended to 25 days,

The findings came in report on the administration of the by-elections in Crewe & Nantwich, Henley, Haltemprice & Howden, and Glasgow East.

Politically, the four contests resulted in a Tory win from Labour, two Tory holds, and an SNP gain from Labour respectively.

In each case the turnout was below the previous general election level, ranging from 57.7% in Crewe & Nantwich to 42.3% in Glasgow East.

The contests ran smoothly with few problems, said the report.

But in each case, the by-election was held over a period of barely three weeks between the moving of the writ and polling day - 17 working days in the case of Glasgow East, and 15 working days in the case of the others.

The commission has called in previous reports for the electoral timetable to be extended to 25 days and it repeated this call today.

The present timescale means that for residents who live in a constituency but have not yet registered, they have little opportunity to realise they are not registered and apply before the deadline, it said.

In the case of the Haltemprice & Howden by-election the writ was received by the returning officer on Friday June 20, and the deadline for registration applications was Wednesday June 25, which was also the last date for applications to vote by post.

Andrew Scallan, the commission's director of electoral administration, said: "Short timescales mean that electors have little time - in some instances only two working days - to register to vote or apply for a postal vote if they have not already done so.

"The current timetable also places an unnecessary burden on electoral administrators, who have very little time to undertake extensive planning and training.

"Our concern is that such a timetable could cause difficulties for electors and electoral administrators at the next UK general election.

"That is why - in the interest of voters - we are recommending that the Government extend the Parliamentary timetable to 25 days."