UK voting system is ''open to fraud''

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Observers from 11 Commonwealth countries who came to monitor the general election have concluded that the UK's voting system is "corruptible and open to fraud".

Among their concerns was the fact that people were expected to be honest about their identities when voting. Also, election officials were often left alone with ballot boxes and sometimes ballot papers were left unattended. And when people applied to vote by post their identity was not checked, according to the observers from Bangladesh, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Guyana, Malawi, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

Their report said: "There is a 'casual' attitude surrounding the process that leaves it vulnerable. While the system is not corrupted it is certainly corruptible. Trust may have been a sufficient anchor for the system in the past but while trust is good, caution and deterrent controls are better."

Among the recommendations were using more staff at polling stations and improving electoral roll software to include photographs, signatures and voter numbers. Also, the pencils that people use at polling stations should be replaced by pens that use indelible ink.

However, the observers were impressed by the "culture of trust and honesty" and the "calm and civilised way" that the voting process was carried out.