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Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (UUP)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 20 January 2025

Debate

Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Contribution

My Lords, every vote counts. That is one of the things that we hear regularly coming up to an election, particularly in Northern Ireland. I am well aware of that because, in my former constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, at one stage an election was won by four votes. When it went to court, three votes were excluded, so it was won by one vote. I have been in contests with very narrow margins. Quite a lot of illegal activity goes on at election time in Northern Ireland, believe it or not. One case concerned a polling station in Garrison, County Fermanagh, which was kept open for an extra 20 minutes by a group of supporters of a political party to allow their people to get in and provide extra votes for their candidate.

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