Home > 1.1.2 Voters' registration and registers > UNITED KINGDOM - Opinion on the Electoral Law
 
 
 
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Paragraph 78
 
 
 
78.  Moreover, the right to vote of citizens of Northern Ireland is not affected by this different registration system, because the more exigent requirements are not an obstacle for the elector to exercise his/her right; they consist merely in giving some extra personal data at the very moment when they apply to register. The fact that these data are used for identifying the elector in the polling station or in the postal voting system reduces the possibility of impersonation and double registration. However, the problems of inaccuracies of the registers derived from the household registration system are reduced by this individual registration system. Finally, the equality between citizens residing in Northern Ireland and the rest of the territory of the United Kingdom is not undermined, because the differentiation is not arbitrary but supported by a notorious and persistent electoral fraud practice in that part of the territory in the past.