LONDON: Around 3.5 million Britons living overseas will from today (Tuesday) be eligible to vote in UK general elections, in one of the biggest increases in the country’s electoral franchise in a century.
A change in the law approved by the parliament in 2022, scrapping a previous curb on UK citizens voting if they had lived overseas for over 15 years, led to the expansion in the electorate.
Implemented ahead of an election set for later 2024, it is the most significant change to the voter rolls since a 1928 law granted women equal voting rights, and a 1969 move to lower the voting age to 18 from 21.
Britons from across the world will now be able to register to vote online, regardless of how long they have been overseas.
Under UK election law, once registered they will also be allowed to donate to political parties and campaigners.
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Around 233,000 overseas voters were registered for the December 2019 election, a significant Brexit-attributed bump on the numbers seen in previous polls.
The government estimates Tuesday’s change could enfranchise around 3.5 million people — nearly triple the 1.3 million votes that was the winning margin in the 2016 referendum on European Union membership.
It still remains unclear how many of the newly eligible 3.5 million UK citizens living overseas will successfully register to vote.
They will need to provide details of the address and time they were last registered to vote or living in the UK.
