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ELECTIONS

Deadline day: What Brits in Europe can do to make sure they vote in UK election

Tuesday, June 18th is the deadline for Brits to register to vote in the UK's general election, but there are other measures you can take to make sure your vote gets to the ballot box on time.

Published: 18 June 2024 08:59 CEST
Deadline day: What Brits in Europe can do to make sure they vote in UK election
Labour Party activists Tim Holt (L) and Martyn Oliver prepare to erect a sign showing support for John Grogan, the Labour party candidate in the forthcoming general election, outside a residential property in the town centre of Silsden near Keighley, northwest England. Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP

The deadline for registering to vote in the UK election on July 4th is 11:59pm on Tuesday June 18th.

Is it too late to register for a postal vote? 

While it is theoretically possible to register for a postal vote until 5pm on Wednesday 19th, it is far from certain that you will be able to get your postal voting pack sent out to you, vote, and send it back to the UK fast enough for your vote to have arrived by the deadline of 10pm on polling day, July 4th. 

The UK’s Royal Mail aims to deliver letters to France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and Austria within 3 to 4 working days, and to other European countries in The Local’s network within 3-5 days. 

This means that while those who registered early should expect to receive their postal voting pack from about June 18th, those who apply on Wednesday may have to wait until June 25th or later.

READ ALSO: The key deadlines Brits in Europe need to know to vote in the UK election

Postnord in Sweden and Denmark aim to get a first class letter to the UK within 3-4 days, France’s La Poste and Germany’s Deutsche Post both take between 2-3 days, and Spain’s Correos aims to deliver to the UK in 2-4 days.

This means you might make it. But all of these services can sometimes take longer, so do you really want to trust them with something as important as your vote?

For Brits in Italy, with its notoriously slow postal service, it’s almost certainly too much of a risk. 

If you registered months ago, can you guarantee getting your postal vote back on time? 

Some councils in the UK sent out postal votes for overseas voters from June 13th, but some Brits have received emails informing them that they will be sent out much later, with one saying they will be sent from June 24th.

It’s worth ringing the electoral services team at your local council to check. 

Indeed, some local councils in the UK (among them South Norfolk and Broadland) have already been in contact with Brits warning them it’s likely to be too tight and advising them to switch to a proxy vote. 

Is it worth paying for a courier or registered delivery? 

Many postal services will offer a more expensive faster service rather than the usual “snail mail” service or there are private firms like DHL that offer quicker delivery services.

Some Brits in Europe are discussing paying for a courier or some other form of express delivery if their voter pack arrives too close to the election.

This may well be worth it as most courier services guarantee to deliver letters within a few days, or even offer same day international delivery, meaning you can skip the worry over whether your ballot will arrive on time. 

If I don’t want to take the risk, can I switch to a proxy? 

If you apply for a proxy vote online you’ve got a bit more time, but you’ll still need to submit your application by 5pm on June 26th.

So you may prefer to opt for the proxy option, in which you authorise someone else in the UK to vote for you. Your proxy can either opt to vote in-person at your polling station or they can ask for a postal vote on your behalf. 

Again, you can apply by post or online. If applying by post, your application needs to reach your local Electoral Registration Office by 5pm on June 19th.

If you have already applied for a postal vote, and want to shift to a proxy, can still make the change up until that same 5pm deadline. 

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ELECTIONS

Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

The polling is not looking good for president Emmanuel Macron's party in the snap elections that he called just two weeks ago. So will he resign if it all goes wrong?

Published: 25 June 2024 09:00 CEST
Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

On Sunday, June 9th, the French president stunned Europe when he called snap parliamentary elections in France, in the wake of humiliating results for his centrist group in the European elections.

The French president has the power to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections – but this power is rarely used and in recent decades French parliaments have run on fixed terms. Very few people predicted Macron’s move.

But polling for the fresh elections (held over two rounds on June 30th and July 7th) is looking very bad for the president’s centrist Renaissance party – currently trailing third behind Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National and the combined leftist group Nouveau Front Populaire.

Listen to the team from The Local discussing all the election latest in the new episode of the Talking France podcast. Download here or listen on the link below

The election was a gamble for Macron – but if his gamble fails will he resign?

What does the law and the constitution say?

Legally, Macron does not need to resign. In France the presidential and the parliamentary elections are separate – Macron himself was re-elected in 2022 with a five-year mandate (until May 2027).

His party failing to gain a parliamentary majority does not change that – in fact the centrists failed to gain a overall majority in the 2022 parliamentary elections too (although they remained the largest party). Since then, the government has limped on, managing to pass some legislation by using constitutional powers.

The constitution also offers no compulsion or even a suggestion that the president should resign if he fails to form a government.

In fact the current constitution (France has had five) gives a significant amount of power to the president at the expense of parliament – the president has the power to dissolve parliament (as Macron has demonstrated), to set policy on areas including defence and diplomacy and to bypass parliament entirely and force through legislation (through the tool known as Article 49.3). 

In fact there are only three reasons in the constitution that a president would finish their term of office early; resigning, dying in office or being the subject of impeachment proceedings.

Since 1958, only one president has resigned – Charles de Gaulle quit in 1969 after the failure of a referendum that he had backed. He died 18 months later, at the age of 79.  

OK, but is he likely to resign?

He says not. In an open letter to the French people published over the weekend, Macron wrote: “You can trust me to act until May 2027 as your president, protector at every moment of our republic, our values, respectful of pluralism and your choices, at your service and that of the nation.”

He insisted that the coming vote was “neither a presidential election, nor a vote of confidence in the president of the republic” but a response to “a single question: who should govern France?”

So it looks likely that Macron will stay put.

And he wouldn’t be the first French president to continue in office despite his party having failed to win a parliamentary majority – presidents François Mitterand and Jacques Chirac both served part of their term in office in a ‘cohabitation‘ – the term for when the president is forced to appoint an opposition politician as prime minister.

But should he resign?

The choice to call the snap elections was Macron’s decision, it seems he took the decision after discussing it just a few close advisers and it surprised and/or infuriated even senior people in his own party.

If the poll leads to political chaos then, many will blame Macron personally and there will be many people calling for his resignation (although that’s hardly new – Macron démission has been a regular cry from political opponents over the last seven years as he enacted policies that they didn’t like).

Regardless of the morality of dealing with the fallout of your own errors, there is also the practicality – if current polling is to be believed, none of the parties are set to achieve an overall majority and the likely result with be an extremely protracted and messy stalemate with unstable governments, fragile coalitions and caretaker prime ministers. It might make sense to have some stability at the top, even if that figure is extremely personally unpopular.

He may leave the country immediately after the result of the second round, however. Washington is hosting a NATO summit on July 9th-11th and a French president would normally attend that as a representative of a key NATO member. 

You can follow all the latest election news HERE or sign up to receive by email our bi-weekly election breakdown

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