THE treatment of EU nationals resident in the UK has been very poor. First they were barred from voting in the 2016 referendum, in which they had an obvious interest, and now we read that many have been denied the right to vote in yesterday’s European election.
We are all too familiar with the shameless incompetence of the UK Government. Joanna Cherry raised the issue in the House of Commons on Wednesday, asking the Prime Minister to ensure that all polling stations have supplies the the form required to be completed by EU nationals wishing to vote. The Prime Minister’s reply was typically dismissive.
I heard on Radio Scotland yesterday afternoon an interview with a gentleman who I believe is the Chief Returning Officer in Scotland. I regret that I can’t recall his name and I may have got his title wrong, but he was presented as the man in charge of the election counts etc. He was asked about reports of EU citizens being denied their vote. He claimed that this was not an issue in Scotland. Now I don’t know when he was interviewed, but anyone looking on Twitter would see that cases were coming to light in Scotland through the day (including a tweet by the First Minister at about 4pm). Advice about how the right to vote could be retrieved was being tweeted by #DeniedMyVote (retweeted by the FM), yet it appears that some officials at polling stations were unaware of the procedure. How could this happen?
EU nationals denied a vote should receive personal apologies by those who failed them.
Democracy in the UK has been tarnished. Electoral rules are flaunted and inadequately policed. No doubt, in years ahead, there will be an inquiry into the shady dealings damaging the electoral system. All too late, while we head for a no-deal Brexit.
Roddie Macpherson
Avoch
ON Thursday a Danish resident of Scotland (arrived in 1992) went to vote in the European Parliament election along with her Scottish husband and son. She had previously phoned after her husband and son received polling cards in the post but she did not. She was told one had been sent and she should come and vote.
She was not allowed to vote (though her husband and son were) on the ground that she had not filled in a form, which she had not seen or heard of, to say that she would not be voting in her country of citizenship. This had not been a problem in previous Euro elections.
It seems that there have been thousands of other “Europeans”, on the electoral register, throughout the UK, prevented from voting on similar grounds. Should this invalidate the election? In my view yes, and the voters concerned should get a fulsome apology – but I expect the UK authorities to ignore it or wriggle out of it.
David Stevenson
Edinburgh
YOUR front-page headline “Election scandal: EU citizens refused the chance To vote” (May 24) raises the question as to whether or not it was an attempt to skew the result in favour of the Leave campaign or just sheer incompetence. Whatever the reason, the UK’s ability to run an election is severely tarnished.
I would think that the vast majority of those EU citizens who live in the UK, contribute to our society and pay their taxes yet were refused the right to vote would be Remainers, therefore I suspect that there will be no complaint from the Leave campaign.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to reflect on the Boston Tea Party (1773) – the slogan at that time was “No taxation without representation”.
The people denied the right to vote deserve an apology and the whole sorry mess must be investigated to establish whether it was incompetence or vote-rigging.
Thomas L Inglis
Fintry
FINALLY, justification of the existence of David Mundell, who has just made a fleeting appearance as a pointless answer in Aunty’s teatime quiz programme. Perfect.
Ian Duff
Inverness
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