It’s Official: Long-Term British Expats Are Ineligible To
Vote In EU Referendum
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| Its official if you have lived outside the uk for 15 years you can not vote |
The case was put forward by 94-year old war veteran Harry
Shindler, who now resides in Italy, and British lawyer Jacquelyn MacLennan, who
now resides in Belgium.
They argued that the law, which prevents British people from
voting in general elections and national referendums if they haven’t lived in
the UK for more than 15 years, was actually technically illegal under rules set
out by the EU. They were confident in their case as Prime Minister David
Cameron himself pledged to repeal the law as part of his political campaign. He
claimed that the rule was unfair.
The High Court ruled that there was no reason to change the
law as it stands. They followed the idea proposed by the government that to
change the ruling now, so close to the vote, would only cause confusion and
would likely lead to the date of the vote being changed.
Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mr Justice Blake said they felt
there were significant practical difficulties about changing the law. In
particular it would be necessary to create a new electoral register that
included all of the expats who had been out of the country for more than 15
years.
While the estimates of what that number is vary there are
approximately 700,000 Brits living outside of the UK who are currently unable
to vote because they have been out of the country for more than 15 years. To
add these names to the registry would be difficult, even though the
Conservative party promised numerous times to make these changes.
An official spokesman for the Cabinet Office released a
statement about the ruling. He said that the government welcomed the decision
reached by the High Court. They added that the EU referendum had been debated
and agreed by both Houses of Parliament before becoming a recognised piece of
legislation.
Mr Shindler was disappointed by the outcome and expressed
his sadness that there are still people in Britain that are fighting for the
right to vote when Britain is supposed to be a democracy.
This issue has become a major issue across all of Europe as
there seems to be an equal amount of people both for and against the 15-year
rule.
The barrister who represented the pair said that their
rights were threatened by the ruling, along with the rights of the thousands of
other Brits who are ineligible to vote. They rely on Britain being a part of
the EU so that they can live and work in Europe, as well as own property in
Europe and eventually retire there. They need Europe to receive their health
care from the NHS.
This isn’t the end of the fight however. The barrister and
lawyers representing Shindler and MacLennan have declared their intent to take
the case to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
Even though there is a lot of demand for a Brexit the polls
currently suggest that Britain will remain. The polls show that 53% wish to
remain in the EU while 47% wish to leave. Three quarters of the Brits who live
outside of the UK are in favour of Britain staying in the EU according to data
released by Angloinfo.
The Electoral Commission said that some 106,000 Brits from
abroad registered to cast their vote in the last general election in May.
