Electoral Commission unveils anti-fraud report

The majority of people in Northern Ireland have welcomed the introduction of anti-fraud measures for elections in the province.

This is according to a new report released today by the Electoral Commission which assessed the operation of the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 in its first year.

A key finding of the report is that, while it proved impossible to establish actual levels of fraud, the measures introduced in the Act have had a positive impact on perceptions of fraud, and confidence levels in the integrity of the electoral process have increased as a result.

Commenting on this finding, Seamus Magee, Head of the Electoral Commission's office in Northern Ireland, said: "Public opinion research conducted on behalf of the Commission shows that 72% of a representative sample of the Northern Ireland population either strongly agreed or tended to agree that the new system should reduce electoral fraud."

However, Sinn Féin MP for Mid-Ulster, Martin McGuinness said that it was "very obvious to anyone involved in the recent election campaign that the current system is deeply flawed".

“It is my intention to meet with the Electoral Commission in the time ahead to discuss the many problems which we encountered during the recent campaign," Mr McGuinness said.

"These problems, be they registration or ID, can be directly traced to the SDLP and unionist sponsored legislation under which the register was complied and the election fought."

The Act, which became law on 1 May 2002, was primarily introduced to overcome widely held perceptions of impersonation and electoral abuse in Northern Ireland.

It brought about the most significant change to electoral law and practice for many years and replaced household registration with individual registration. It also introduced the requirement for photographic identification at polling stations.

The Electoral Commission conducted research into the new registration system because of a high degree of public interest in the issue and the fact that the new register contained about 120,000 fewer names than the register compiled under the previous household system.

(MB)