NI postal vote numbers halved
The number of people applying for a postal or proxy vote has halved since the last General Election.
Friday, 30 April 2010
The figures released on Friday show 18,071 electors have been granted a postal or proxy vote.
Read Ken Reid's Election blog: It's in the post
That represents a decrease of more than 47% since the 2005 General Election '"largely because of stringent measures put in place to detect fraudulent applications," the electoral office explained.
The total number of people able to vote at the election is 1,169,184, an increase of 2.5% since the last General Election in 2005.
Commenting on the latest figures, Douglas Bain, the Chief Electoral Officer, said:
"There will be more people than ever before in Northern Ireland able to vote at this General Election despite the reduction in postal or proxy applications."
"The figures reflect the determined efforts of the Office in increasing the numbers legitimately on the register while our warnings about the consequences of fraudulent postal and proxy vote applications and our robust counter-fraud measures are working," he added.
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