UK Parliament / Open data

Electoral Administration Bill

Proceeding contribution from Baroness Harman (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 25 October 2005. It occurred during Debate on bills on Electoral Administration Bill.
The hon. Gentleman advances strongly the arguments that are in favour of changing the voting age and reducing it from 18 to 16. I have said that, as well as pursuing citizenship classes and many other measures, we will try to keep as open a mind as possible. It is not a question of people losing the habit of voting. A generation of people are growing up who have never voted. They have never got into the habit of voting. We are proposing lowering the age of candidacy from 21 to 18 in line with the change in voting age that has already taken place, opening up the possibility of teenage Members for the first time. Hon. Members have expressed their concern that our system denies some members of our armed forces the right to vote. I acknowledge the representations on this issue of the hon. Members for Gosport (Peter Viggers) and for Chichester (Mr. Tyrie), my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, South (Mr. George), the Minister for Industry and the Regions, my right hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Alun Michael), and the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Paul Holmes). Many other right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House have also brought the issue to my attention. As a result of those representations, I have met my right hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for the armed forces, and the Electoral Commission has, together with the armed forces, begun a concerted campaign to ensure that every member of the armed forces gets on the register and then gets either a postal vote or a proxy vote. It must be right to make absolutely sure that our servicemen and women, away from their homes on national service, do not thereby lose their right to vote. We shall monitor the situation to ensure that the changes are working, and the first test will be the May 2006 elections.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
438 c196 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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