Qualifying to vote

To qualify to be registered to vote you must be resident or deemed resident in the registration area and a British, Irish, European Union, Commonwealth or Foreign National citizen with the legal right to remain in the UK. You must be aged 14 or over to register but you cannot vote until you are 16 (Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections) or 18 (UK Parliamentary elections) and not subject to any legal incapacity. Convicted prisoners serving sentences of 12 months or less are also eligible to register to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and Scottish Local Government elections.

Citizens of the European Union and Foreign Nationals may also only register as local government and Scottish Parliamentary electors.

List of European Union Member States
Austria	Estonia	Italy	Portugal
Belgium	Finland	Latvia	Romania
Bulgaria	France	Lithuania	Slovakia
Croatia	Germany	Luxembourg	Slovenia
Cyprus	Greece	Malta	Spain
Czech Republic	Hungary	Netherlands	Sweden
Denmark	Ireland	Poland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cyprus and Malta are Commonwealth countries, in addition to being new EU states. Accession to the EU therefore has no effect on the status of their citizens, who can continue to register to vote in elections for local government, the European Parliament, the Westminster Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, as appropriate, in the way that they have done in the past. (The same position obtains for Irish Citizens)

For registration purposes, the whole of Cyprus is considered to be a Commonwealth country. Citizens of Cyprus holding a passport from either the Republic of Cyprus or the Republic of Northern Cyprus are entitled to be included in the register of electors as Commonwealth citizens. However, anyone with a Turkish passport is not entitled to register.