Isle of Man law changes after election fraud

Law changes will bring more "transparency and integrity" to island elections, the Manx government claims.

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill has been proposed, after three people were convicted of election fraud in 2012.

In a trial at Douglas court house the trio were found guilty of manipulating the Isle of Man's proxy voting system during a by-election in 2010.

A government spokesman said the updated laws included proxy vote restrictions.

Declare funding

He added: "The Bill replaces the term 'absent voting' with 'advance voting' to make it clearer that this option is open to any elector, regardless of their ability to attend a polling station on polling day.

"It restricts the availability of 'proxy' voting to those who cannot vote in person or by advance vote".

The law update comes after an independent review, promoted by the outcome of the election trial in 2012.

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill would also mean each political candidate would have to publicly declare all campaign funding.

All anonymous donations would have to be refused and a limit would be placed on how much each candidate could spend on the campaign.

An eight-week consultation was launched on Wednesday.