Sunderland Elections Illegal?

John Sills
Head of Electoral Policy Division
Dept. Constitutional Affairs

Dear Sir,

I live in the county of Tyne and Wear, in Sunderland. I am represented in the parliamentary constituency of Sunderland(South).
Sunderland has three constituencies with a fourth shared with Gateshead. In all there are 13 constituencies in Tyne and Wear

Sunderland


1. a) Statutory Election Notices are only displayed on the internal walls of the Civic
Centre (this is situated in the Sunderland (South) constituency). There are no
statutory notices displayed in the other constituencies.
b) These notices are not visible from the public highway, and are only displayed to
those who have reason to be in the Civic Centre
c) These notices are not therefore displayed as required by the Elections Act

2. a) The Parliamentary Constituency boundaries were established in 1995 and
came into force in 1997 ( The Parliamentary Constituencies(England) Order
1995)
b) In Tyne and Wear, the boundaries were established by enclosing several
Local Government Wards ( these being in existence in 1994)
d) In June 2004 the wards of 1994 were ABOLISHED, this included their previous
boundaries
e) There appears to be no expressed legislation that allows the previous boundaries
to be used for any purpose after the wards were abolished and as such the present
Parliamentary Constituency boundaries (based upon the old wards) have ceased
to exist.

3. a) All the electors of Sunderland (including all of Tyne and Wear) have been
registered in new wards, which have entirely new boundaries. Given new
registration numbers and allocated to new polling areas within the new wards
b) These new wards are entirely different from those expressed in the 1995 Order

4 The Boundary Commission is due to report in 2006/7 with the new Constituency
boundaries coming into force after the next General Election following.

5 In Sunderland(South) we had 8 wards assigned in the 1995 Order. Now we have
11 wards, nine of which are shared with adjacent constituencies i.e. four with Sunderland(North) and five with Houghton and Washington

6. None of the 11 wards in Sunderland (South) correspond with those clearly
expressed in the 1995 Order

I would like the Electoral Commission to be instructed to investigate the above forthwith, with a view to how is it possible to vote in un-established constituencies, and a total lack of statutory notification

Yours faithfully

Name and Address Withheld

Electoral Register Number Withheld