Mr Harold McCusker: I beg to move amendment No. 10, in page 4, line 7, leave out 'to which this section applies'.
Mr Harold McCusker: Subsections (1) and (2) define the new offence which is now to exist, not only on polling day but, thank goodness, on the day before. I believe, however, that the offence is too narrowly defined. Subsection (2) seems to mean that the offence is committed only if the person has in his or her possession one of the five prescribed documents described earlier on. I am sure that that will be...
Mr Harold McCusker: Would not that mean that the person would have to present himself for a photograph during the qualifying period or immediately after it?
Mr Harold McCusker: Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman suggesting that I need not bring a prescribed document when I vote?
Mr Harold McCusker: Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman accept that at the previous election presiding officers must have handed thousands of ballot papers to people in the certain knowledge that they were not the right people? If that happened at the previous election, what will be different at the next election if a person comes in with what purports to be a prescribed document? If the same presiding...
Mr Harold McCusker: Is the hon. Gentleman suggesting that, if a polling agent has good cause to think that the document produced was false or bogus or was not a document that belonged to the individual involved, he cannot interject in any way to obtain an assurance that it is a prescribed document?
Mr Harold McCusker: I do not know about the last point; it is something that the Minister can investigate. The Minister spoke about the necessity for consistency of treatment. I am sure that the Minister will accept that hundreds of thousands of voters in Northern Ireland who go to the polls are just like voters in his constituency. How does he feel his electorate would react—I am talking about the ordinary...
Mr Harold McCusker: My hon. Friend the Member for Londonderry, East (Mr. Ross) is concerned that the Bill might not do the job for which it is designed and I am concerned that it may contribute to improvements but in so doing cause more problems than it solves. Like my hon. Friend, I shall rehearse some of the arguments that I advanced when we considered the Bill previously. In any election in Northern Ireland,...
Mr Harold McCusker: We know, and I think that the Minister knows, that the medical card is the weakest prescribed document. It has little real validity in the whole exercise. It is the document most likely to be held by most people in Northern Ireland. I do not believe that the terrorists will print innumerable medical cards with the intention of stealing votes. I do not believe that they will obtain, as has...
Mr Harold McCusker: My understanding—I am willing to be corrected—is that the RUC officer can act at any time if he is suspicious of what is happening. However, there will be some instances when he will need to be given some sign. If there were over-diligent policemen stopping many people who were not personating, there could be allegations of victimisation, harassment and so on. While the police will know...
Mr Harold McCusker: We are underestimating the character of our people, whether Unionist or nationalist. There is a degree to which our people will allow themselves to be pushed around by the paramilitary or politicians of all colours. However, there are limits when it comes to voting. They might, in many instances, be prepared to hand over a poll card. In sympathetic houses, there may be a willingness to...
Mr Harold McCusker: I am emphasising the 500,000 people who are legitimately entitled to vote. We should seek to reduce obstacles to their exercising the franchise. As was said, they may be known personally. I seek to move towards the Minister's position of requiring specific documents and of expecting some identification from a potential voter if there is a query. In many cases such a document may not be...
Mr Harold McCusker: That is what we are aiming for. I take my poll card with me anyway because it makes life easier for the presiding officer. The production of a poll card, which shows my name and proper address and, if the presiding officer insists, which I hope he would not, the production of a prescribed document, such as a medical card, would be a combination that would satisfy him. We seek to build in a...
Mr Harold McCusker: I ask the Committee to bear in mind what I asked the House to consider last Thursday. Despite what we heard last Thursday and what we shall hear this evening, personation is not as widespread in Northern Ireland as some believe. Presiding officers are not required to exercise their minds every time someone comes in to vote at a polling station in Northern Ireland. At best, we are dealing with...
Mr Harold McCusker: My right hon. Friend does not think that likely, but it could happen. Someone in the South Down area could go to the polling station where my right hon. Friend normally votes, present himself to the presiding officer and say, "I am Enoch Powell " If he produces a prescribed document— the driving licence with the name "Enoch Powell" on it—he has met all the criteria. There is nothing on...
Mr Harold McCusker: That discretion and power is not given to the presiding officer, because the next subsection provides that Where a voter produces a prescribed document, the presiding officer or clerk to whom it is produced shall deliver a ballot paper to the voter unless the officer or clerk decides that the document raises a reasonable doubt". That relates to the document. The person standing there is...
Mr Harold McCusker: I am sure that that would add further complications. In Portadown there is only one Harold McCusker. I have arrived at my polling station and produced my prescribed document, my medical card, but on the face of it, it would raise reasonable doubts about whether I am the person entitled to vote because the address on the card is not the same as the address on the register. What do we do there?
Mr Harold McCusker: I am not required to do that. Assuming that two or three days before the election I thought that that was necessary, I still would not have the time to do so. Many people might be in that situation. I have been told to use a bit of common sense and to be reasonable about this. The presiding officer will know who I am and will use his discretion. However, are we not suggesting that the...
Mr Harold McCusker: I agree with my right hon. Friend. The presiding officer has no power to ask anyone to reproduce his signature anyway. When I first looked at the Bill, which we received at fairly short notice last week, I concentrated almost entirely on clause 1, and I think most of my hon. Friends did as well. We omitted to give much attention to clause 3. Therefore, my comments were based on the belief...
Mr Harold McCusker: But does not the hon. Gentleman accept that the systematic stealing of votes was confined to about one third of the constituencies in Northern Ireland? Indeed, the main problem was probably confined to only two or three constituencies.
