The Electoral Register
The Parliament (Elections and _Meeting) Bill which had its second reading last Tuesday is not a major measure of electoral reform, and it does not deal with the question of redistribution, which is to be examined by a Speaker's Conference. It provides the means for establishing an up-to-date register based on the national regis- tration system for the purposes of a General Election or a by- election, and it enables servicemen and others oversea to vote by proxy. The problem of a shifting population is largely solved by the provision that two months' residence in a constituency will qualify a person entitled to the vote for registration. The Bill is frankly only an interim measure. It removes the anomaly of a register four years old and the disfranchisement of young men and women who have reached the qualifying age since the war began ; and it meets the case of those millions of persons who have moved from one constituency into another. The system will involve a long delay between the initiation of an election and an election itself, owing to the time that will be required for preparation of the register, but this is a minor disadvantage which apparently cannot b•e avoided. The main point is that it will become possible to hold either a General Election or a by-election on the basis of an up-to-date and inclusive register. The Bill only goes half-way towards providing adequate democratic machinery. That will not be obtained until there has been a drastic measure of redistribution.
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