I seen a link online saying Expats can vote in the UK election if you have been out of the country for less than 15 years...

I cannot vote here.... yet but I dont think I will bother vote for the Uk when I haven't not lived there for the last 3 years.

what are other peoples Opinions?? Will you vote still... even if you havent been there for years?

I thought there was a thread on this fairly recently but it seems to be 2010

Been away over 10 years so far, can still vote in the UK but not here. It seems wrong. On both counts.

It seems a bit odd to be able to vote, but I definitely will be. We left the UK 2 years ago and weren't allowed to vote in the Scottish referendum (I know, I can understand the reasons why not, but we desperately wanted to). So because of that we'll definitely be voting in this election. How I'll feel about elections to come I don't know, I might not bother.

Mind you, whether we get to vote depends on whether we actually get registered. I applied in February and have heard nothing back....

I initially agreed with who was allowed to vote. I've since changed my mind and decided only those born in Scotland should have been allowed... only because that would have given the result I wanted.

I'll be voting SNP in May, although my constituency is pretty much a foregone conclusion anyhow. Regarding the recent TV debate, by all accounts, Nicola Sturgeon put in a very good performance in the recent leaders' debate. I thought Nigel Farage was abysmal, but I can understand how he managed to come out of the debate with some credit - he pandered to those already intent on voting for him with his anti-immigration rhetoric. I actually thought Clegg was fairly decent (as he usually is in this format) , although the Lib Dems are going struggle immensely. I'm not sure whether I think that's fair or not, I can see both sides of the argument.

I thought Sturgeon did well also, no point in any non Scottish people voting for her though, same with the Welsh woman but at least Sturgeon had the brains to pretend she appealed to the whole country, if I had to hear the other one say 'in wales we want' anymore I would've screamed.

Clegg was awful, his over rehearsed 'I'm going remember the question askers name & repeat it over & over again to try & distract them from the fact I haven't actually answered their question' is getting really old now. He also looked foolish trying to stab the tories in the back every chance he got.

I always think Farage comes across as quite straight talking, he answers peoples questions & if you actually listen to what he says instead taking snippets & interpreting them wrong or assuming there's fascism behind it, he makes sense (most of the time). He isn't anti immigration, he's anti uncontrolled immigration, there's a big difference.

I think Cameron probably came across the best, he didn't let himself get wound up by the cattiness of the night like some of the others. I think that shows quite good leadership to be able to rise above it.

Ed the less said the better

Any particular reason you have chosen not to become a citizen? It seems a little foolish to complain about an issue over which you have complete control.

I have voted once in my life (1992). I assume that that means that the options available since then have not been sufficiently different to justify the time and effort involved.

I certainly wouldn't vote in an election in a country in which I was no longer resident, even if permitted to do so.

Farage and members of his party consistently make disgraceful, xenophobic remarks, hence why UKIP is generally known as a bigoted, xenophobic party. His comments on HIV during the debate were disgusting.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/portu...ection-855324/

You realise you live in a country that screens for HIV & doesn't allow people that have it to emigrate there. What's wrong with asking for the same system in the UK?

I'm generally in this camp, but I've just counted and found I've been out of the country for 13 full years now. So this might be my last go. If only one of them was worth voting for...

As a hippie friend used to say, if voting could change the system, they'd ban it.

That said, if I was still living there, I'd go just to vote for anyone other than LibDims, Labour and Tories, because all three parties need to be tossed into the dustbin of history before anything can improve.

That kind of affects my resolve to vote. Do I really want to jump through all the hoops (no idea how many hoops to be fair) to vote for the Monster Raving Loony party?

Although I believe that as a PR married to a Canadian and with parental responsibilities for two Canadian kids of school age, I should have been able to vote once PR was granted, it's really the contrast with being able to vote in UK elections that makes it especially wrong.

On its own Canadian politics seems rife with corruption and cronyism and I'm not sufficiently moved to want to vote so I'm not going to buy citizenship just for that.

Obviously corruption, cronyism and all the rest exists in the UK too but it's always been my impression the majority of politicians in the UK are in it to do good - whatever their 'good' happens to be.

The other reasons for citizenship are not something relevant to me so it's not worth paying for.

Thanks but I see that's on the Portugal forum. I thought there had been something recent on the Canadian side.

Fair enough

The only election I've voted in was a school election and I voted for Sally Jessup as she let me feel her up over her jumper to garner my support. I suspect if British politicians used this tactic there would far more MPs like Luciana Berger and less Ed Milibands.