Representation of the People Act 1969
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to amend the law about the qualification of electors at elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom or at local government elections in Great Britain, and the qualification for election to and membership of local authorities in England and Wales, about the conduct of and manner of voting at those elections and about candidates' election expenses thereat, and otherwise to make provision about matters incidental to those elections, and for purposes connected therewith.
Citation1969 c. 15
Dates
Royal assent17 April 1969

The Representation of the People Act 1969 (c. 15) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that lowered the voting age to 18 years. This statute is sometimes called the Sixth Reform Act.

Background

The 1960s were a period of growing political and cultural demands by young people in Britain, as in other Western democracies. The British political establishment developed a uniquely liberal response, described by Arthur Marwick, a British social historian, as a ‘measured response’ theory.[1][2]

Legislation

The Representation of the People Act extended suffrage to 18-year-olds, the first major democratic nation to lower its age of franchise to include this age group.[1][3][4] Previously, only those aged over 21 were permitted to vote. The first election affected by this change of law was the 1970 Bridgwater by-election held on 13th March 1970 after the death of the sitting MP.[5] The 1970 United Kingdom general election was the first general election in which this Act had effect. Other changes introduced by the Act include requiring ballot papers to show the name of the party as well as the name of the candidate.[5][6]

In local government elections, the Act abolished plural voting, except in the City of London.[7][8]

Aftereffects

Case law subsequently established the right for undergraduate students to vote in the constituency of their university.[9] This followed an appeal to the High Court led for the National Union of Students (NUS) by the Junior Common Room student body of Churchill College, Cambridge University under the guidance of Richard Henry Tizard, founding Fellow of Churchill College.

The approach taken by the UK political establishment to the radical challenge of youth culture, which primarily involved strategies of co-option and compromise, was able to stymie much of the rising social and political tension that convulsed some other liberal democracies in 1968 and peaked in the early 1970s.[1][2]

The 1969 Act, sometimes known as the Sixth Reform Act,[5][10][11] did not extend the right to stand as a candidate for election to Parliament to under-21s. The age of candidacy for elections in the United Kingdom was lowered from 21 to 18 in 2006, with the passing of the Electoral Administration Act 2006.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Loughran, Thomas; Mycock, Andrew; Tonge, Jonathan (3 April 2021). "A coming of age: how and why the UK became the first democracy to allow votes for 18-year-olds". Contemporary British History. 35 (2): 284–313. doi:10.1080/13619462.2021.1890589. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 233956982. Our starting point is placement of the 1969 Act within the context of previous reforms of the age of enfranchisement since the Great Reform Act of 1832.
  2. 1 2 Marwick, Arthur (28 September 2011). The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4482-0542-4.
  3. ↑ Loughran, Thomas; Mycock, Andrew; Tonge, Jonathan (3 November 2021). "Lowering the voting age: three lessons from the 1969 Representation of the People's Act". British Politics and Policy at LSE. Retrieved 31 December 2022. 'Votes at 18' was the last major extension of the UK franchise and is therefore an important element of the history of UK democracy from the 1832 Great Reform Act onwards.
  4. ↑ Bingham, Adrian (25 June 2019). "'The last milestone' on the journey to full adult suffrage? 50 years of debates about the voting age". History & Policy. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "1969 Representation of the People Act". www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2021. 1969-sixth-reform-act
  6. ↑ "Representation of the People Act 1969". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).
  7. ↑ Halsey, Albert Henry (1988). British Social Trends since 1900. Springer. p. 298. ISBN 9781349194667.
  8. ↑ Peter Brooke (24 February 1999). "City of London (Ward Elections) Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 452.
  9. ↑ Stephen D. Fisher & Nick Hillman. "Do students swing elections? Registration, turnout and voting behaviour among full-time students" (PDF). HEPI. p. 4.
  10. ↑ "Members of Parliament Chadderton". www.chadderton-historical-society.org.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2021. Act of 1969 (also known as the Sixth Reform Act)
  11. ↑ Kitching, Paula. "Political Reform: Lesson Plan 6: Overview" (PDF). The History of Parliament. p. 3. Create one of the following charts for each of the six Reform Acts
  12. ↑ "Electoral Administration Act 2006". www.legislation.gov.uk. gov.uk. 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
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