Klaus Jurgens

I KNOW I have been writing about the subject regularly and shall take the commentator’s liberty to continue to do so.

Why? Because I have heard some expats are happy not to have any formal ‘voter relations’ with the UK. Turkey is now more than a second home; for many it is their only home. Yet the right to vote back home should never be completely sidelined.

Up to today, all of us who originally hails from Britain, or EU nationals like me who made the UK their permanent residence, and have been living abroad for more than 15 years, automatically lose their entitlement to vote in local, national and EU elections.

Unless, of course, we constantly travel back and forth, keep two houses and perhaps two mortgages, and remember to stay on our electoral register.

This is not what a fair number of fellow expats want (except of course for the latter point). They sold their home in the UK and moved to Turkey, intending to spend the long remainder of their happy retired lives there.

But a basic human right – the right to vote – should never be taken away from anyone unless you opt to do so.

Hence, today’s British laws stipulate that once a UK resident has lived for a consecutive 15 years or more abroad they are no longer allowed to cast a vote.

However, there is a silver lining on the somewhat cloudy horizon back home. The government is planning to alter that very law.

I was alerted to this by email from the Conservative Party (I receive emails from other political parties, too, in case you wonder) which is eager to propose the Cabinet shelve the law at a maximum by when the time has come for another general election. It would be a great step forward!

May I put this into a more general expat voter picture? Life is all about ones’ own choices and mistakes. This includes the right to travel and settle wherever they feel happy. But punishing those who left the country as if they were convicts by declaring their voice and vote are no longer wanted is simply put unfair.

It is much more correct to assume that the vast majority of expats living either here in Turkey or anywhere else have used their combined savings and/or credit to buy a place under the sun. And they do not want to return. And this is their citizen’s right.

Yet no one should be able to invalidate that person’s and former taxpayer’s basic democracy citizen’s right to cast a vote in UK elections.

This article was inspired by my recently double checking whether I am still registered at the last address I was legally residing at for the purpose of a fixed abode and my right to vote.

Since I overlooked the tiny detail of constantly updating details and missed out on two votes already, it was a reminder that the moment I am back in London in October to re-register.

Then I realized at the same time that what happened to me by my own mistake should not be able to be legally imposed on anyone only because we have lived for 15 years + overseas.

My advice: get in touch with your MP; this is an issue beneficial for everyone no matter your political color. Have an all-party supportive vote in the House of Commons as soon as possible perhaps even before the next upcoming general elections. Let’s get lobbying!