A Bill calling for internet voting for expats and the withdrawal of the 15-year time limit on their participation in UK elections was withdrawn after a short debate at Westminster. Chris Chope, MP for Christchurch, Dorset, withdrew a private members bill calling for the government to scrap the time limit. Constitutional Reform minister John Penrose told Parliament that he believed as many as 6 million expat voters could vote in British and European elections, but less than 2 million had signed up to the electoral roll and most of the rest were excluded by the time limit. The Tories promised in their election manifesto that the time limit would be scrapped, but have failed to do so in time for the UK Brexit referendum in June.
Chope – with cross party support from Labour – wanted to get rid of the time limit and to introduce internet voting for expats. Penrose argued that the government supported his bill in principle, but felt that internet voting was too insecure.
“Parliamentary draftsmen are working on a bill to scrap this time limit as we speak,” he said. “The 15-year limit is arbitrary and meaningless. Many countries have similar time limits, but the amount of time varies and some have none.
Full Article: UK Bill To Scrap Expat Voting Time Limit Dropped – iExpats.