§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the noble Lord, Lord Belstead, will now correct his statement (24th May 1982, col. 1062) that the report of their official observers on the El Salvador elections made clear that the ink marked on the hand of the electors disappeared within 24 hours.
§ Lord BelsteadI regret that inadvertently I made an inaccurate reference to the report of the official observers on the elections in El Salvador. As I have explained in a letter to the noble Lord, paragraph 10 of the official observers' report includes the statement
both stamp and mark are in invisible and indelible ink which will however show up under an infra-red lamp with which every polling committee is equipped. The inks are indelible for at least 24 hours and so effectively preclude repeated voting by the same person, or repeated use of the same ID card".