Disenfranchised expats: The ones that can’t vote anywhere

Feeling disenfranchised? Photo credit: Andrew Dunn

This year sees many parliamentary elections worldwide. There are elections in Belgium, the Netherlands, Egypt and Suriname to name a few. We ask a few people what rights they have when it comes to voting while living in the UK.

Indu Chandrasekhar, 23, from the US, is not allowed to take part in the UK elections but if she wants she can take part in the US elections while living here. “In the US, as long as you are a citizen, you can vote. There are even groups, such as Democrats Abroad, that help expats vote,” she explains. “The system has always been that if you can’t vote in person, you can submit an absentee ballot. This is especially important because it allows troops to vote.”

Jaime Concha, 25, from Colombia will not be able to vote for the presidential elections in his home country this year. The Colombian elections are set to take place at the end of this month.

“I can’t vote for the Colombian elections because apparently I didn’t register my ID at the Embassy in November,” Jaime explains. “The thing is, the political scene in Colombia was way different in November, and it is early for people to be registering to vote for elections that are taking place six months later. I also wasn’t even informed that I had to register back then.”

A similar process to the Colombian one takes place in the Netherlands and Belgium where voters, when abroad, have to register months before the election takes place. This however only applies when they still have a registered home address in Holland or Belgium, if they don’t and they have not been here for more than three years they are not allowed to vote anywhere aside from at the British local elections and the European elections.

Ilonka Oudenampsen, 23, from the Netherlands, does have a home address in Holland but was unaware that she had to register early. She now needs to fly back home in order to vote.

“It isn’t easy to vote in the Dutch elections when you are abroad. You need to register early to be able to vote by mail. So I will go back to the Netherlands before the elections take place and sign my ballot over to one of my parents. This means they can then vote for me.”

Heng Lu, 27, is especially unlucky when it comes to voting rights. Heng can not vote in the UK but coming from China he has no right to vote there either, aside from in the regional elections. Heng, however, says that the Chinese system isn’t half bad. “Here in the UK the content does not set the agenda for many voters. The voters go by popularity through the TV debates for instance. It’s a lot of lies as far as I can see and though I think everyone should make use of their right to vote I can also understand that people don’t do it. Nothing ever changes with the three parties,” he says. “In China, because there is just one party, there is no competition over who is in power, so they can focus more on the content.”

But many in the UK, whether there’s more spin and PR than content, are still happy to be able to vote. One group of voters who can consider themselves lucky are those who come from Ireland.

As Rachel McGovern, editor of The First Pint, explains: “I can vote here in the UK in all elections. Ireland and the UK gave their citizens reciprocal voting rights as part of the Belfast Agreement that established power-sharing in Northern Ireland.”

“It’s an unusual situation but one I’m happy to take advantage of because I can’t vote at home when I’m not resident there. There’s a certain amount of disenfranchisement that seems to go with being an ex-pat,” she says.

This certainly seems to be the case. What are are the rules for you? If you know, feel free to share your information with our other readers and send us a comment.