Today the BBC is marking the 750th Anniversary of the first elected parliament at Westminster with its own ‘Democracy Day'. Throughout history there has been a long tradition of Black and Minority communities fighting for their right to vote. Despite this, those from BME backgrounds in the UK are less likely to be registered to vote: it's time to put that right.
The General Election is on 7 May and the registration deadline of 20 April is fast approaching. It's vital that we get as many people registered as possible, a message particularly important for BME communities across the UK as they are significantly under-represented on the electoral registers.
The Electoral Commission's latest research shows that BME people are less likely to be registered to vote: with 76% of black people registered compared to 86% of white people. While this is a worrying statistic, the General Election offers us a unique opportunity to make our democracy more inclusive and reflect our diversity.
It is for these reasons that Operation Black Vote (OBV) is launching its most ambitious project to date. Beginning on National Voter Registration Day on 5 February, we'll be taking a state-of-the-art bus – the OBV eXpress – across Great Britain, visiting towns and cities with large BME communities.
The bus will directly engage with people in their communities, explain the importance of registering to vote and support them through the process, including a reminder in advance that they should bring their national insurance number tin order to register on the bus.
We'll have 12 computer stations on board where people can register to vote using the new, easy to use online system, which takes less than 5 minutes at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. There will also be information in many different languages explaining exactly how they can register.
The scale of the challenge we face is not to be under-estimated. All of us who care about our democracy want as many people from BME backgrounds to be engaged in politics and place their cross in the box on polling day. We urge people from all backgrounds to encourage friends and family to get on board the bus as it tours around Great Britain and so they can register to vote.
It's vital that we work together to increase the representation of BME people on the electoral registers, so I'd like to encourage local authorities to host this bus which should significantly add to the numbers of vote registrations.
Without a strong political voice for our increasing ethnic minorities, the ideal of equality of opportunity - regardless of race and colour - will remain an ideal rather than the reality it should be.
Simon Woolley, Director, Operation Black Vote
