In the last week I was speaking to a couple of EU nationals living in London who were not aware they could vote in the upcoming local elections. This is hardly surprising as EU nationals cannot vote in general elections, nor could vote in the EU referendum in 2016. So, if you are:
If so it’ll be interesting to see if anything changes when only U.K. citizens (which of course includes EU migrants who have chosen this as their long term home) are able to vote for the U.K. parliament.
That’s already the case for the UK parliament. EU citizens are only allowed to vote in local, regional, and EU elections - not national elections or referendas.
The only exception at present is Irish citizens who are allowed to vote in UK national elections.
But i assume (i may be wrong) that EU citizens will have no voting rights in local elections after Brexit - bringing them into line with national elections.
With the extension of Article 50 to October 31st, there is a high probability that the UK will participate in the European Parliamentary elections at the end of May. So now is a good time to ensure you are registered to vote if you are eligible. Eligibility is outlined on the Electoral Commission website. But in summary, you can vote if you are:
18 years of age or over on polling day
a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen, or a citizen of the European Union
resident in the UK
not be subject to any legal incapacity to vote
If you are a citizen of another European Union countries (other than the UK, Republic of Ireland, Malta and Cyprus) you must complete a form stating that they wish to vote in the UK and not in their home country. Again information on the Electoral Commission website.
Well it might be in London as we don’t have local elections this year. It is possible that EU citizens with permanent residency would have the right to vote in local elections after Brexit, but that’s not clear.
The European Parliamentary elections are a bit different from general or local elections. But these elections on 23rd May 2019 will give every EU, Commonwealth and British citizens over 18 living in the UK the right to vote - the largest franchise of any UK election.
Could be an interesting European Parliamentary election especially since it uses the D’Hondt system of PR, so that MEPs better represent the split of votes in each region.
The results from the 2014 elections in London had MEPs for:
Labour - 4 MEPs (37%)
Conservatives - 2 MEPs (23%)
UKIP - 1 MEP (17%)
Green - 1 MEP (9%)
Lib Dems - 0 MEPs (7%)
To make life slightly easier we don’t get a second choice. That will badly impact two parties representing roughly the same thing (Brexit Party/UKIP or Change UK/Lib Dems), but it also prevents single parties with high regional support for taking all the seats.
