Voting 'should be mandatory'

Polling booth

Monday, 01, May 2006 12:00

Brits should be fined if they do not vote in elections, a leading think-tank has said.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) says fining non-voters would combat low turnout at polling stations across the country.

The call for compulsory voting, as practised in Belgium and Australia where turnout tops 90 per cent, was backed by Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain and Commons leader Geoff Hoon

Turnout is expected to be low at England's local elections this month, while today's report finds the last two general elections had turnouts of 59 per cent and 61 per cent – the lowest since the first world war.

Young people are half as likely to vote as over-65s and the number of Londoners voting in local elections has fallen by 16 per cent in 12 years, with only a third of the city's inhabitants turning up at ballot boxes, according to the report.

Ben Rogers, associate director at the ippr, said compulsory voting was the only way to stop the "haemorrhaging of turnout".

He added: "We are comfortable with compulsion in other walks of life, such as jury duty or the requirement to educate our children. Surely our democracy is valuable enough to deserve a similar level of backing."

However, the Conservatives have warned that making voting mandatory could be used as a government "cash cow".