Electoral register - Unacceptable that citizens lose votes

IT is ironic at a time when politicians are encouraging disenchanted voters to become more involved with the democratic process, that the names of thousands of citizens have been deleted from the electoral register.

Even more galling, perhaps, is the fact that many people, who believed they were on the register, only to learn they had been excluded, are mired in a bureaucratic quagmire as they seek to get their names back on the register.

Adding to this electoral shambles, the names of dead people remain on the register, thus entitling them to vote.

Having initially rejected calls for enough time to remedy these discrepancies, Environment Minister Dick Roche insisted the November 25 deadline was written in stone. Under pressure, however, he has since performed a reluctant u-turn, extending the registration deadline to December 9.

With an election looming, it is absolutely unacceptable that so many voters have, apparently unwittingly, been disenfranchised. Adding to their frustration, many are being strangled in a web of red tape, frustrating their efforts to be reinstated. Instead of adopting the cynical practice of blaming others, the Government and Mr Roche should be bending over backwards to accommodate voters. If needs be, the registration deadline should be further extended.

Through no fault of their own, tens of thousands of citizens face the risk of being denied the right to exercise the franchise in next year’s general election. That makes a mockery of the democratic process.