Tidal Wave of opposition

Northern Echo Letters
01/09/04

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT
I TOO noticed the slanted use of images in the Government booklet on the Regional Assembly Referendum (Echo, Aug 28), and I share the view that this crude manipulation calls into question the fairness of the vote.

But there is another cause for concern. In the referendum we will also be asked to vote for the form of local government to sit below the regional assembly, if that is approved.

For County Durham, the options are the existing county council or area councils formed by amalgamating groups of local councils. For the last year the county council has been busily spending our money issuing press releases and glossy magazines, magnifying every petty achievement, and generally telling us what a wonderful job it is doing.

The unfairness of this is that the proposed alternative to the county council will be several separate area councils that do not yet exist, so there is no strong voice to counter the propaganda offensive of the county council.

In a general election there are strict rules about publicity expenditure but apparently anything goes in the referendum. This is yet another reason for scrapping the whole thing now. The ballot papers have not gone out yet and, despite what the Electoral Commission says, it is not too late to call a halt.
Ian Forsyth, Durham.

POSTAL VOTING
THE Electoral Commission has now stated that all-postal voting should not be used in UK elections after reviewing the local and European polls of June 2004.

It says that it is too early to tell if there was more fraud but that the trial of 14 million voters was hampered by delays in the delivery of voting papers.

Prior to the elections, the Government was warned that the voting system should not be tinkered with to try and gain voter advantage. It was warned not to try so big a pilot.

People do need a choice in how they vote, including the right to ballot in privacy at a polling station. When in Northallerton in June, I met people who said they did not like the new system and that they would not vote again if they could not go to a polling station.

The Government needs to take notice of the commission on this important issue and work with other parties to prevent abuse which can occur with postal voting in general.
Jacqueline Bell, PPC Liberal Democrats, Richmond.

SO the Electoral Commission has decided that the postal vote is unsatisfactory, thus confirming what many of us already feared.

Indeed, this was surely the reason given by the Government for not going ahead with the two other regions planned. How, then, can it be right to press on regardless with the referendum in the North-East?

This an extremely important decision we are being asked to take; if it is allowed to go ahead there will be a large proportion of voters who will feel their view has not been properly represented, especially if the vote is a close one.

There is no reason I can see why it has to go ahead. It is immaterial that all the arrangements have been made, and that costs will be incurred. The referendum is too important for that to matter. What we must have is a vote that we will all have confidence in.
David M Bishop, Guisborough.

I AM appalled that a liberal newspaper, such as I believe The Northern Echo to be, should support postal voting.

The whole idea of the secret ballot is to prevent intimidation and fraud, and this is being done away with at a stroke.

If able bodied people can't be bothered to walk to a polling station, they don't deserve to have a vote.

It seems to me that the present Government is prepared to do all in its power to stay in office by introducing postal voting and puppet regional assemblies.
Peter W Elliott, Eaglescliffe.

NICK Raynsford, the Local Government Minister, is determined, once more, to ensure that the North-East gets only second best.

The Electoral Commission has been investigating the use of all-postal ballots in elections and has found widespread problems and dangers of fraud. The commission has concluded that all-postal voting should no longer be pursued for use at UK elections. However, despite all the evidence gathered by the commission, Mr Raynsford has stated that an all-postal ballot will still be used for the referendum on a North-East Assembly this autumn. Interviewed on local TV, he said that the important thing to remember was that postal voting had increased turn-out. Is Mr Raynsford only concerned with the numbers game? Has he no interest in probity, honesty and integrity?

The Government is already trying to fob the North-East off with bureaucratic proposals for an assembly which will do nothing to remove the under-funding from which we have suffered for decades. It is clear now that they wish to fob us off with a discredited and unreliable voting system too.

A system in which the electorate has no confidence must be abandoned. We must revert to our traditional tried and tested voting methods for the assembly referendum.
Judith Wallace, Chairman, North-East No Campaign.