Policy and Reform Minister John Shimmin has dismissed as 'totally misleading' a claim that almost half the eligible voters in Douglas have been excluded from the electoral register.

The comment came from business consultancy Carse Hannay and quoted partner Stephen Carse who was the island's electoral registration officer for more than 20 years. He said that almost as many eligible residents in Douglas are now excluded from the electoral registers as are included in them.

Mr Shimmin said that after an update of the register the number of voters in Douglas South and Douglas North, where by-elections are due to take place, were about a quarter down but the onus was on the indvidual to register to vote.

He said: 'The use of the word excluded in this context is totally misleading. It implies that thousands of people have been deliberately prevented from getting on to the electoral register, which would be a ridiculous assertion to make.

'As I stated in the House of Keys last week, it is not surprising that the voters lists are shorter than they used to be, as one of the aims of updating the register was to remove entries which were no longer valid, because the household had moved for example.

‘Over the previous decade the register had become grossly inaccurate, and an inaccurate register serves
little purpose.'

He added: 'The onus is clearly on the individual to ensure that they are registered to vote and in some cases people are simply not that bothered about registering or voting. Engaging the public in the democratic process is a challenge for us in the Isle of Man as it is in other countries.

‘It is also true that much work remains to be done to modernise the processes and procedures around the electoral register, but I do believe the recent updating exercise has been a step in the right direction.'


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