SF calls for action on disenfranchised voters

Sinn Fein has urged the North's electoral commission to address a "democratic deficit" it said has been created by new anti-fraud measures.

The North's electorate recently fell by 130,000, or more than 10%, after new laws were introduced governing the registration of voters. It is unclear if the voters taken off the register were fraudulent, if they were unaware of the new registration procedures or if they were reluctant to register under the new system because of suspicions of authority.

The revised system requires voters to provide personal identification, their date of birth, their national insurance number and their signature. It also abolishes the old system where the head of a household registers all eligible voters in that household, replacing it with a system where each voter is responsible for his or her own registration.