Team Blitz India
LONDON: Universities and student unions have warned that a large number of students may not be able to vote if the Government calls General Election in October, because there may not be enough time to register them, said a newspaper report. Earlier, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had hinted at a possible schedule for October during questioning by a House of Lords select committee.
Universities and student unions were already nervous about the idea of an autumn election, when students are settling into new halls or houses and less likely to be focused on applying to joining the electoral register or acquiring photo ID that will be compatible with the government’s new voter rules, according to The Guardian report.
They also told the newspaper that an October election – potentially just two or three weeks after freshers’ week in many university towns – would not leave local councils enough time to put many thousands of new student addresses on the electoral register.
With data suggesting that thousands of studentvoters had fallen off the electoral roll as a result of the new rules, many universities have introduced a system to automatically sign-up students, the report added. This requires every student to tick a box when they enroll at the university at the start of each year if they want their details to be passed on to their local council to register them to vote.
But new research suggests that around 100 universities have yet to do this, leaving it up to students, many of whom will not have voted before and will be living away from home for the first time, to register themselves online, the report said further.
UK citizens studying abroad temporarily as part of a university degree are able to register to vote, while those from outside the country can find out their eligibility and register to vote and how to apply by answering a few questions on the Electoral Commission’s website.
