05 May 2006
Voting in national and local government elections should be a civic duty akin to jury service, a senior Cabinet minister said this week.
Throwing his support behind the Institute for Public Policy Research's call for compulsory turnout at all major UK elections, Northern Ireland and Wales Secretary Peter Hain said that wider debate on reform of the electoral process was 'long overdue'. He called for a system that 'reconnects those who are distanced from the democratic and political process'.
Hain said: 'I support the recommendation to design a voting system that regards participation in the democratic process as a civic duty, like jury service.'
Cabinet colleague and Leader of the House Geoff Hoon backed Hain. At the last general election, youngsters aged 18 to 25 were
only half as likely to vote as the over-65s, the study states. Hoon described such differentials among those 'with the most to gain from political decisions' as 'disturbing'. In states with compulsory turnout laws, overall turnouts have reached 95%.
Ben Rogers, IPPR associate director, added: 'We are comfortable with compulsion in other walks of life, such as jury duty or the requirement to educate our children. Surely our democracy is valuable enough to deserve a similar level of backing.'
The IPPR published its report on the potential for compulsory turnout, A citizen's duty, on May 1, three days before the local government elections.
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