Eligibility to vote

When completing your Electoral Registration form remember to include the names of all those living in your household who are eligible to vote. Eligible persons are:

• British Citizens
• An Irish Citizen
• Qualifying Commonwealth Citizens (including Maltese and Cypriot) who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, or does not need permission
• A foreign national who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, or who does not need permission (you can vote in Senedd or local council elections only)
• A European Union (EU) citizen (you can vote in Senedd and local council elections and you may b e able to vote in Police and Crime Commissioner elections). 

You can register at 16 years of age or over, as the Electoral Register runs from 1st December to 30th November every year we need the dates of birth of persons just under 18 to make sure they are on the Register in time for them to vote. Although your name may appear on the Electoral Register before you are 18 you will not be allowed to vote until you are 18.

Qualifying Commonwealth Countries and British Overseas Territories

All UK residents from any of the following Countries MUST register.

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Australia
• The Bahamas
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belize
• Botswana
• Britain
• Brunei Darussalam
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Cyprus
• Dominica
• Eswatini
• Fiji Islands
• Gabon
• Ghana
• Grenada
• Guyana
• India
• Jamaica
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Malta
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nauru
• New Zealand
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Papua New Guinea
• Rwanda
• Saint Kitts & Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Solomon Islands
• South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• Togo
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• United Republic of Tanzania
• United Kingdom
• Vanuatu
• Zambia

British Overseas Territories

• Anguilla
• Bermuda
• British Antarctic Territory
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Falkland Islands
• Gibraltar
• Monserrat
• The Pitcairn Islands
• St Helena and Dependencies (Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands)
• Turks and Caicos Islands (This is not Turkey)

Member States of the European Union

Citizens from member countries of the European Union are eligible to register to vote in local government and Senedd elections, providing they meet with the age and residency requirements and are not legally incapable of voting. Citizens of the Republic of Ireland, Cyprus and Malta are eligible to be registered to vote in respect of all elections in the UK.

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

European Union citizens – voting rights for EU citizens have changed

Following EU Exit, the Government decided that voting and candidacy rights should be amended to reflect the UK’s relationship with the EU.

From 7 May 2024, EU electors living in Wales will only be able to vote at Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections if they satisfy certain criteria. It does not affect the right to be registered as a local government elector and to vote in local and devolved polls here.

 Two new groups of electors have been created that will be eligible to vote at Local Government, Senedd and PCC Elections :

• a qualifying EU citizen
• a EU citizen with retained rights

A person is a qualifying EU Citizen if they: are a citizen of a country with which the UK has a bilateral voting and candidacy rights (VCR) treaty- these countries are : Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal

A person is a EU citizen with retained rights if they are from any other EU country who on or before 31 December 2020 had permission to enter or stay in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, or who did not need permission, and this had continued without a break.

How will the eligibility Confirmation Review (ECR) process work

Carmarthenshire County Council will write out to all EU citizens in the County leading up to the end of 2024.

Those EU citizens who have been identified as eligible to remain registered to vote will receive a letter confirming their maintained registration under the new criteria. No action is required by these EU electors.  These EU citizen details will remain on the electoral register and will continue to be eligible to vote in local elections and PCC elections.

Those EU citizens who our records show were registered to vote after 31 December 2020, and whereby we are not certain meet the new criteria, will receive a letter requesting further information from that elector to ascertain their eligibility.

Hong Kong

Following its transfer to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997, Hong Kong was deleted from the list of British Overseas Territories. As a result, former residents of Hong Kong are not qualifying Commonwealth citizens by virtue of their residency in Hong Kong as Hong Kong Chinese is no longer a nationality.

If an elector declares their nationality to be Hong Kong Chinese then the Electoral Registration Officer should exercise their powers to require evidence of the elector’s actual nationality and confirm the type of passport that they hold. Any previous resident of Hong Kong who holds a British Dependent Territories, British Nationals (Overseas) or British Overseas passport meets the nationality criteria for all elections in the UK. Any previous resident of Hong Kong who only has a Chinese Special Administrative Region passport is Chinese and may not register.