§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements are in operation in Common Market countries with regard to foreign nationals and their franchise in local elections.
§ Mr. HattersleyI have been asked to reply.
Foreign nationals are not eligible to vote in local government elections in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg or the Netherlands.
In the Republic of Ireland there is no necessary citizenship qualification for eligibility to vote in local government elections: eligibility is determined by having a domicile or property in a given area.
In the United Kingdom the persons entitled to vote in parliamentary and local government elections are those who, not being subject to any specific legal incapacity, are British subjects, including Commonwealth citizens, or citizens of the Republic of Ireland, who have reached the age of 18 on the date of the poll, and who, by virtue of these qualifications and their residence in the United Kingdom on the qualifying date each year, have been included in the current register of electors.