NI election 2022: People with Covid-19 can vote in person

The deadline to register to vote in the election is 14 April

People who test positive for Covid-19 or have symptoms will still be allowed to vote at polling stations in the assembly election, Northern Ireland's chief electoral officer has said.

Virginia McVea said the normal postal and proxy vote legislation remained the same for Northern Ireland and did not make allowances for Covid-19.

The Department of Health said it is the "responsibility of the UK government".

"Public health guidance on Covid-19 remains as stated on NI Direct".

The deadline to register to vote on 5 May is midnight on 14 April.

Anyone who wants to vote by proxy or post must apply by 12 April.

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Commenting on the development, which was first first reported by the Andersonstown News, Ms McVea told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that people who were positive for coronavirus on polling day or had symptoms would "have a choice" on what they would like to do.

"Government has directed that in Northern Ireland the normal absent vote legislation should apply," she said.

"So there has been no change in Northern Ireland to make allowance for Covid.

"That means 12 April is such an important deadline for anyone who has been shielding or is frail or vulnerable - we haven't had many applications relating to Covid in relation to absent vote."

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without emergency proxy voting on the day.

The government is advising people in Great Britain who have Covid-19 or symptoms not to attend polling stations.

'Take every precaution'

On Friday, Northern Ireland's Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) reported that Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificates of 38 people in the week up to Friday 1 April.

This brought the agency's total, based on deaths registered since the start of the pandemic, to 4,462.

Ms McVea said the usual Covid precautions would be in place at polling stations including screens, automatic hand sanitiser and enhanced ventilation.

But she encouraged people feeling unwell on polling day to take measures too.

"If you have symptoms or have tested positive on the day of poll, the government has directed that you have a choice," she said.

"You can go to the polling station, but we're asking you to take every precaution for others going into the polling station."

Virginia McVea said the usual Covid precautions would be in place at polling stations

'Fraud concern'

A UK government spokesperson said with people no longer having to self-isolate across the UK, the "chief electoral officer will be ensuring all reasonable measures will be in place" to limit risks at polling stations.

"The approach to proxy voting in Northern Ireland has always been different to the rest of the UK because of concerns about historic voter fraud," the spokesperson said.

"Relaxing rules on proxy voting would risk undermining confidence in the electoral system and is not necessary as there is no legal prohibition on attending a polling station."

Meanwhile, scientists in Northern Ireland are monitoring laboratory results for any indication that the new Omicron variant XE has arrived.

There have been no confirmed cases but there could be a very small number of XE cases in NI among the high volume of Covid cases.

In England, several hundred cases have been detected.

People who apply to vote by post and proxy and who registered to vote online, will need to provide their digital registration number (DRN).

It is automatically sent to people by email when they register to vote online but they can also obtain it from the Electoral Office website.

The deadline for parties to submit their list of candidates for next month's assembly elections was Friday evening.

A total of 239 candidates will contest the Northern Ireland Assembly election next month - 11 more than last time.

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