13 Jul 2011
The Electoral Commission, the independent elections watchdog, has published its report on the referendum on the law-making powers of the National Assembly for Wales which took place on the 3 March 2011.
The report looks at how the Wales referendum was run and what the experience of voters was through public opinion research.
Research showed that only 24% of people in Wales were aware of the referendum in January 2011. This was before the Commission’s nation-wide campaign to raise awareness, which included sending a booklet about the referendum to every household in Wales. By polling day, awareness had increased to 75%.
The Commission’s report recommends that, for referendums statutorily conducted by the Commission, the UK Government introduce standard rules. This would ensure that the process of planning for the referendum is simplified for all those involved. With such a set of generic rules in place it would mean that in future, legislation covering any given referendum would only need to deal with the date, the question and the franchise.
The report also notes that because the only applicant to be the lead campaigner for the ‘No’ campaign failed to meet the statutory test, the Commission was – by law - unable to appoint lead campaign organisations at the referendum. This meant that neither side received access to public resources, such as free mailings and broadcasts, which would have helped them in putting their arguments to voters. Whilst it is difficult to quantify the effect of this on voters, the report concludes that there must have been an impact on how easily voters could get information on the reasons to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in the referendum.
Despite these issues, 77% of voters were confident that the event had been well run (compared to 73% of voters in Wales who thought that the UK Parliamentary general election was well run in 2010).
Jenny Watson, the Chief Counting Officer for the referendum and Chair of the Electoral Commission, said: “We are pleased that voters were positive about their experience of voting in the referendum, and that awareness of the referendum increased substantially by polling day. Our aim was to make sure voters’ interests were at the centre of the way the referendum was run and I would like to thank all the local government staff across Wales who helped to make that happen. There are lessons to learn for the future, and we’ll be saying more about this in our report this autumn.”
The Commission will draw together key issues raised and lessons learnt from both the Wales referendum and the 5 May referendum to decide on the voting system used to elect MPs to the House of Commons in a further report to be published in autumn 2011.
Ends/
For more information
Electoral Commission press office: 029 2034 6810
Out of office hours: 07789 920 414
Notes to editors
1. The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the UK’s democratic process. We regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections.
2. The Electoral Commission has specific responsibilities for conducting referendums held under the framework of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). The referendum in Wales was covered under that framework
3. The report covers the following issues:
- The referendum question
- Information for voters
- Campaigning and designation of lead campaigners
- Delivering the referendum
- Voters' experience
- Counting of votes
- The results
- The cost of the referendum
4. The Commission launched the report this morning at the Assembly in an event sponsored by Deputy Presiding Officer David Melding AM.
5. The public opinion survey was run by Ipsos MORI:
- The data is based on interviews with 1,005 adults aged 18+ across Wales
- Interviewing was conducted by Ipsos MORI and took place between 5 and 9 March 2011. Data is weighted to match the profile of the population.
6. Read a summary of the report and the report in full on our website: www.electoralcommission.org.uk/wales.
