Qualifying Commonwealth citizens are entitled to register as Parliamentary and as local government electors provided that on the relevant date they also fulfil the age and residence requirements for registration and are not subject to any other legal incapacity.1
Citizens of Commonwealth countries other than the United Kingdom are not eligible to register as overseas electors.2
A person is a qualifying Commonwealth citizen if they do not require leave to enter or remain in the UK, or they do require leave to enter or remain in the UK but have been granted such leave, or are treated as having been granted such leave.
Any type of leave to enter or remain is acceptable, whether indefinite, time limited or conditional.
Commonwealth citizens temporarily in the UK and pending removal
The Home Office have advised that Commonwealth citizens who are temporarily in the UK pending removal, are not in the UK legally whilst arrangements for their removal are being made. As these citizens do not have leave to enter or remain they are not eligible to register to vote.
List of Commonwealth countries
Antigua and Barbuda
Kenya
Saint Lucia
Australia
Kingdom of Eswatini
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
The Bahamas
Kiribati
Samoa
Bangladesh
Lesotho
Seychelles
Barbados
Malawi
Sierra Leone
Belize
Malaysia
Singapore
Botswana
Maldives
Solomon Islands
Brunei Darussalam
Malta*
South Africa
Cameroon
Mauritius
Sri Lanka
Canada
Mozambique
Tonga
Cyprus*
Namibia
Trinidad and Tobago
Dominica
Nauru
Tuvalu
Fiji
New Zealand
Uganda
Ghana
Nigeria
United Kingdom
The Gambia
Pakistan
United Republic of Tanzania
Grenada
Papua New Guinea
Vanuatu
Guyana
Rwanda
Zambia
India
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Zimbabwe
Jamaica
*Although also EU member states, citizens of Cyprus and Malta are eligible to be registered to vote in respect of all elections held in the UK.
Citizens of Commonwealth countries that have been suspended from the Commonwealth retain their voting rights. Their voting rights would only be affected if their country was also deleted from the list of Commonwealth countries in the British Nationality Act 1981 through an Act of the UK Parliament.