Register contains 300,000 'ghost voters'

THERE are 300,000 "ghost voters" on the electoral register, because the system is an "appalling mess", Environment Minister Dick Roche, has admitted.

Mr Roche plans to overhaul the system, introducing guidelines this autumn to remove all "ghost voters" from the register.

Mr Roche said the situation had been tolerated for too long, and laid the blame squarely on local authorities. They had contributed, he said, to a situation where there are more than 3 million voters on the register while only 2.7 million people are eligible to vote.