Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was prevented from appearing at a local polling station on Thursday as he failed to bring the photo ID required under a law passed by his government two years ago, the BBC reported.
Polling station workers in Johnson’s constituency of South Oxfordshire were forced to refuse the former Conservative Party chief when Johnson tried to vote in the local election.
According to local media, Johnson later returned with the necessary ID to cast his vote.
Under the Electoral Act, which came into force in 2022 under the Johnson government, British voters are required to show an accepted photo ID at polling stations. However, critics of the law stated that it made it harder for people to vote and would act as a form of voter suppression.
A spokesperson for Britain’s Electoral Commission said after polls closed on Thursday night that “a number of new measures from the Elections Act were in force at these elections, including voter ID for the first time in Wales and parts of England. The electoral community has been working hard to prepare voters for these changes. Most voters who wanted to vote were able to do so.”
Our initial assessment of the elections is that they were well-run, and millions of voters were able to exercise their democratic rights.
