- General election being held in the UK on 7 May
- British citizens living in Jersey can vote, as long as they were registered at least once in last 15 years
- Deputy Sam Mézec has reminded eligible Islanders to take the chance to vote
- Which way would you vote? Take our poll below
BRITISH citizens who are living in Jersey are being encouraged to register to vote in the UK’s general election.
UK election rules state that British citizens living overseas are still eligible to vote as long as they were registered to vote at some point in the last 15 years.
Deputy Sam Mézec, of Reform Jersey, is urging people who have moved to the Island during that time to make sure that they are registered to vote.
‘There are likely to be hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people in Jersey who have no idea that they are actually still eligible to vote in the general election,’ he said.
Deputy Mézec, who is also a member of the Labour Party, hopes that Islanders will vote because of the ‘important services’ that Jersey residents get from the UK, including health and education.
‘Making sure we have a UK government that will protect those services will benefit Jersey,’ he said.
‘We also need to remember that jeopardising the UK’s position in the EU, as some parties are intent on doing, will have serious implications for our finance industry.’
Voters must be registered to vote by 20 April and must have applied for a postal vote by 21 April. This can be done here.
The UK election will be held on 7 May. On Thursday, a BBC poll of polls put the Conservatives ahead with a 34 per cent share of the votes.
Labour were second (33%), UKIP were third (13%) and the Liberal Democrats, who formed the previous coalition government with the Conservatives, were fourth with eight per cent. The Greens were fifth in the poll with five per cent.
Labour have made gains in a series of opinion polls, enjoying leads in three and cutting the Conservative lead in another.
The latest survey also contains good news for the Liberal Democrats who gain three points to draw level with Ukip for the first time in more than 18 months.
ComRes research for ITV and the Daily Mail suggested the race was still too tight to call with the Tories on 34% and Labour on 33%.
But that compared with a four-point deficit for Ed Miliband’s Opposition at the start of the campaign.
Despite the shift in support, voters still trust the Conservatives significantly more on the crucial issue of running the economy (46% to 28%) and making the right level of cuts to government spending (38% to 32%).
The Liberal Democrats – who have consistently surrendered their third-party status in polls for a long period – were up three to join Ukip on 12%.
Greens were down a point at 4%.
Other polls gave Labour leads of between three and six points and one suggested that for the first time voters thought Ed Miliband was doing a better job than David Cameron.
The Opposition gained two points on last week in the Survation poll for the Mirror, while the Conservatives dipped one, to move ahead by 35% to 31%.
The Labour leader – despite still trailing his Tory rival as the best to be prime minister by 37% to 25% – will be delighted at their latest personal approval ratings after lagging consistently behind throughout most of his leadership.
The gap between those saying he was doing a good and bad job was +3.2 points, to Mr Cameron’s +2.3.
Survation found overwhelming public support – 59% to 16% against – for the Opposition’s pledge to abolish “non dom” tax status.
On May 7 voting intention, Ukip shed more support, down three to 15%, while the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party unchanged on 9% and 5% and the Greens up two on 4%.
Survation sampled 1,111 adults and the results were weighted.
Panelbase – which had the two main parties level-pegging on 33% last week – showed Labour climbing to 37% and the Tories dropping to 31%.
Ukip were down one at 16%, the LIb Dems up one on 8% and the Greens down one at 4%.
It interviewed 1,013 people between April 7 – 9.
In a TNS Omnibus survey Labour gained one point to 33% while the Conservatives fell three to 30%.
