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Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), was turned away from a polling station after he forgot to carry a photo identification card to vote in a local election, according to a CNN report.
Johnson introduced the photo ID requirement during his tenure.
Polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away as he tried to cast his ballot in South Oxfordshire on Thursday, PA media reported.
Johnson returned later with the necessary ID and was able to vote.
Johnson’s Conservative Party introduced the new rules requiring photo ID to vote in the Elections Act 2022.
The law was widely criticised when it was introduced.
However, the UK’s Electoral Commission warned in 2023 that the law could “exclude hundreds of thousands of people” from voting and particularly impact the unemployed or members of ethnic minorities.
Moreover, a report by a cross-party group of members of Parliament warned in March that millions of voters face being disenfranchised at the next general election due to the country’s electoral registration system.
It said the voter ID requirement “left individuals without the right ID being prevented from voting and only a number of forms of ID being permitted.”
Also, according to the report, Johnson was not the only high-profile individual who was turned away from the polling stations.
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Among those turned away from polling stations was army veteran Adam Diver, who said he was “gutted” when he was unable to vote because his veterans’ ID card was not accepted.
Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer apologised to Diver.
“The legislation on acceptable forms of ID came out before the veterans ID cards started coming out in January this year. I will do all I can to change it before the next one,” Mercer said.
About the Thursday polls in UK
Local elections were held across the country for more than 100 councils and several mayors on Thursday.
With around a third of the results declared, the loss of more than 100 seats on local councils and one parliamentary seat in a by-election suggests that national polls in which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his party trail by a distance are correct.
The results also mean that if a general election were held tomorrow, the opposition Labour Party would almost certainly win power.
Source: CNN
The post Former UK PM Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting his photo ID first appeared on 3News.
