It’s looking likely that millions of people who were prevented from taking part in the 2016 EU referendum will get a chance to have their say in the European Parliamentary elections.
This includes citizens from other EU countries who’ve made their homes here, as well as young people too young to vote in the referendum, who face having their rights and freedoms taken away from them.
Yet the Electoral Commission recently tweeted that a third of 18 to 24-year-olds* are not registered to vote. Meanwhile many non-British EU citizens do not realise they need to fill out a special form to vote for UK MEPs in addition to registering to vote. More of that below.
The deadline for registering to vote is May 7th!
Register to vote
You must make sure that you are registered to vote! The deadline to register to vote in European Parliament elections is Tuesday 7 May 2019. You can do so here: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. Please note you will need your National Insurance number to hand.
Who is eligible to vote
You must be registered to vote and also be one of the following:
- 18 years or over on polling day
- a British citizen, a qualifying commonwealth citizen, or a citizen of the European Union resident in the UK
- a UK citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years
- not be subject to any legal incapacity to vote
How can non-UK EU Citizens register to vote?
To be able to vote for and elect MEPs in the UK, non-UK EU citizens have to both register to vote AND complete a form stating that you will vote in the UK rather than your “home” country. You can’t vote twice! Registering to vote isn’t enough. If you don’t complete the form, you won’t be able to vote. Note: Irish, Maltese and Cypriot citizens only need to register.
Follow these three steps:
- Register to vote (by May 7th).
- Download and complete the form saying that you will vote in the UK
- Post or email your completed form to your local authority electoral registration office. You can find your local authority using this search tool. There are several offices across Suffolk based on your postcode.
You must ensure that your completed form reaches your local electoral registration office by 7th May 2019. We recommend that you phone them to check that they have received it. Please also note if you’re posting it, that May 6th is a bank holiday, so there won’t be any postal collection or delivery.
There is more information on registering to vote at: www.yourvotematters.co.uk/how-am-i-represented/european-parliment
How is the European Parliament elected?
You have ONE vote to elect all of the MEPs for your region (here in the East of England, we are allocated seven MEPs).
Each party puts forward a list of candidates – known as a regional list – and you vote for one of these lists (you would only vote for an individual candidate if they are standing as an independent). The number of MEPs that are elected from each party list to represent a region depends on the overall share of votes that party receives, with the candidate at the top of the list getting the 1st seat, the candidate next on the list getting the 2nd seat etc. (for example in the 2019 Labour list for the East of England Alex Mayer MEP would get the first Labour Party seat, and Chris Vince the second).
Why should we vote tactically in the European Parliament elections?
Seats in the European Parliament are distributed according to the d’Hondt system, a type of proportional representation. This is a fairer voting system than the UK’s first-past-the-post “winner takes all” system but it still favours parties with more votes relative to those with fewer seats. To have any chance of getting a candidate elected a party needs to get at least 10% of the vote, and in practice a larger share is almost always needed. In the 2014 European Parliament election no party in our East of England constituency with less than 17% of the vote had an MEP elected.
So, to maximise the number of pro-EU MEPs elected in our region we will have to vote tactically. Polls of voter intentions in each European Parliament constituency nearer the election day will help identify which parties we should vote for to have the best chance of getting pro-EU MEPs elected, and we will post links to them on this webpage.
Suffolk EU Alliance’s position on the European Parliament election
In the context of the campaign for the UK to remain in the EU, the upcoming European Parliament elections serve two purposes: as a poll on the UK’s membership of the EU, represented by the share of the vote for political parties that support remain, and also to elect pro-EU candidates to the European Parliament who support the UK’s continued membership of the EU and will fight for our rights as EU citizens. A majority of voters backing pro-EU parties is key to winning the public vote on Brexit.
Suffolk EU Alliance is a cross party – and non-party – campaign group, so we will not be backing any individual party. That said, we recommend our supporters to vote for parties:
- Whose European Parliament election manifestos commit them to backing a People’s Vote/confirmatory referendum on any Brexit deal
- Whose candidates, and in particular those at and near the top of their lists, back both a People’s Vote/confirmatory referendum on any Brexit deal and the UK staying in the EU.
The parties have not yet published their manifestos, and not all parties have published their candidate lists. When they do we will publish summaries of their positions and links to the manifestos and lists on this page.
Download the registration form here.
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