Afghanistan

Election Report

The government’s own election watchdog has called for “immediate action” to remedy the problems faced by forces voters in the general election.

In its assessment of how the polls went in May, it says the system is at breaking point - and that’s best illustrated by the difficulties faced by service personnel and their families trying to have their say from overseas.

While it’s the queues at polling stations that are grabbing the headlines in the UK the electoral commission’s report seems to have more concern about how the voting system affected those casting their ballot by post

It says the timeframe in the days before the election is just too tight for forces and overseas voters leaving the system at breaking point

If this sounds familiar – that’s because it’s roughly what the commission was saying after the last election…. Back then there were promises it would be sorted

There were some changes this time for those voting from Afghanistan – a dedicated team in the UK, special courier flights for voting forms… and at the last minute a special scanning service for registrations because the air bridge was closed by volcanic ash.

But those measures involved only a few hundred votes… out of 10’s of thousands.

The electoral commission clearly thinks much more needs to be done.