Devolved government is devolved..... Westminster has limited authority to issue blanket laws.
Local government is also "different", non-British residents in the UK can vote in local, but not national elections (with given exceptions).

Do you have to go back to the UK to vote in a General Election once registered?The website seems to be suggesting that they will allocate a Polling Station near your last address.

Once you have registered and been accepted - you get a confirmation letter. You need to provide a 'renewal declaration' every three years for which they send a reminder.

Initially, you are registered as 'In Person - Overseas' which means you have to travel back to the UK and show up at a polling station near to where you used to live !
However, you can make a further application for an 'absent vote' which can be done in either of two ways.
1) Proxy vote - someone you know who is eligible to vote does it for you
2) A postal vote - where you send back the postal ballot pack yourself. This is sent out between 12 and 6 days before polling day and has to be returned by 10am on polling day to be valid.

So all in all they don't make it easy - perhaps we should hope for online electronic voting sometime !

more info on www.gov.uk/how-to-vote

Thanks very much for the information.

Well i have received my confirmation from Wandsworth council that I am registered to vote again, and also that my request for postal vote was approved.

I rarely go back to the UK, and rarely take much interest in what happens there. I am in Portugal now with my family for over a decade and am in the process of waiting for PT citizenship.

But the actions of the UK government clearly do affect us, with Brexit being a case in point. And that is not finished, and probably never will be, because the UK will constantly have to struggle to try to cope with the situation it put itself in. So it does still affect me.

It seems strange that many Brits object to me being able to vote in a UK election on the basis that I am not resident there. These same people reject the argument that long term UK residents *without* citizenship (e.g. EU citizens) should have the right to vote in UK elections because "they aren't citizens". Well, you cannot have it both ways. If voting is by citizenship, not residency, then so be it. I am a citizen, I should be entitled to vote.

Hi All - I filled in the online voter registration form, then got a helpful email from Cardiff Council saying that I need to send a scan of correspondence with my old address on it. An address I left 36 years ago. Anyone know if there is a different way to register? Can I register without giving a 'previous address'? Thanks!

To answer my own question, I found it can be done, provided you can find an elector who is not a family member and persuade then to fill in a form confirming your old address. I’m sure one of the candidates will be happy to oblige 😀

Also from a Welsh constituency, I had no issues like that at all. Did you own the property or were you renting? The property I lived at was mine so there are plenty of records at the local office in my case.

I applied several months ago and was told by email that the address I had given, one of only two I'd ever had in the UK, was incorrect. I double checked the info and it was all correct, so I gave up. A few days ago I saw something online about voting and so I tried again and this time I got an email to say all good, and that I could either vote in person, by post or by proxy. I won't be able to vote in person as I won't be in the UK on the date of the election and I'm not confident about CTT delivering voting papers and/or sending them back in time so I will probably vote by proxy. What I cannot find is the information on who I can get to vote on my behalf. I'm guessing that it needs to be someone in my geographical/constituency area. If not I can get my son to vote for me as he lives in the next county.

Sportpix... the deadline for applying for this is 5pm 26 June.(just in case you didn't know)

I received this

Sportpix: My tip would be to ring the constituency office of the party you want to vote for and get the details of one of the campaign workers, nominate them as your proxy.

That would mean an international phone call and the way that MEO absolutely gouge on extras it would never happen. I have filled in the online form and nominated my sister as my proxy so as far as I'm concerned it's now done. Sadly my vote won't prevent the champagne socialists from becoming the next government. As long as the dreadful Farage doesn't win a seat I'll be happy.