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Minister challenges voter ‘exclusion’ claim

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Policy and Reform Minister John Shimmin MHK has criticised the wording of a news release claiming that almost half of the eligible voters in Douglas have been 'excluded' from the electoral register.

The news release came from the business consultancy Carse Hannay and quoted partner Stephen Carse, who retired in 2013 after more than 20 years as the Island's Electoral Registration Officer.

It suggested that following an updating of the voters lists earlier this year 'almost as many eligible residents in Douglas are now excluded from the electoral registers as are included in them.'

Minister Shimmin commented:

'The use of the word excluded in this context is totally misleading. It implies that thousands of people have been deliberately prevented from getting on to the electoral register, which would be a ridiculous assertion to make.

'As I stated in the House of Keys last week, it is not surprising that the voters lists are shorter than they used to be, as one of the aims of updating the register was to remove entries which were no longer valid, because the household had moved for example.

'Over the previous decade the register had become grossly inaccurate, and an inaccurate register serves little purpose.'

Minister Shimmin added that the voters lists in Douglas North and Douglas South were now about three-quarters of the length that they were in 2011 (74.7% and 76.8% respectively).

He continued:

'The onus is clearly on the individual to ensure that they are registered to vote and in some cases people are simply not that bothered about registering or voting. Engaging the public in the democratic process is a challenge for us in the Isle of Man as it is in other countries.


'It is also true that much work remains to be done to modernise the processes and procedures around the electoral register, but I do believe the recent updating exercise has been a step in the right direction.'

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