Just when you thought it was safe....
There is likely to be a by-election in Ballymoney if councillors can't agree to coopt a replacement for Councillor Roy Wilson who quit the council recently. The DUP man cited work, family and church reasons for his departure and now his Rasharkin seat may be contested by the TUV. The council is due to meet on August 3rd and first item on the agenda is a discussion around replacing Roy Wilson. If one councillor objects it goes to byelection.
If there is a poll - most likely in late September/early October - voters should beware about bringing out-of-date ID documents with them to the polling station. It seems that expired passports, driving licenses, electoral ID cards and Translink Smartpasses are not allowed for council elections - even though they were allowed for the last Euro-poll in June. Moreover, voters who were allowed to use a Translink 60+ Smartpass, a Blind Person's SmartPass,and a Translink War Disabled SmartPass cannot do so for council elections.
It seems Parliament failed to legislate to ensure these forms of ID and expired ID could be used for Council elections. Oops.
What a headache for the Electoral Office - after spending so much energy educating people on ID for the European election.
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