The Representation of the People Act 1969 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

. This statute is sometimes known as the Sixth Reform Act. The Act lowered the

voting age A voting age is a minimum age established by law that a person must attain before they become eligible to vote in a public election. The most common voting age is 18 years; however, voting ages as low as 16 and as high as 25 currently exist ( ...

to 18. The United Kingdom was the first major democratic country to include all adults in its national franchise.

Minimum age for electors

The Act extended

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

to 18-year-olds, the first major democratic nation to lower its age of franchise to include this age group. Previously, only those aged over 21 were permitted to vote. The

1970 United Kingdom general election The 1970 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 18 June 1970. It resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, which defeated the governing Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The Liberal Part ...

is the first in which this Act had effect. Votes were extended to

undergraduate students Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-l ...

in the constituency of their university. This followed an appeal to the High Court led for the National Union of Students by the Junior Common Room student body of Churchill College, Cambridge University under the guidance of

Richard Henry Tizard Richard Henry Tizard (25 June 1917 – 5 September 2005) was a distinguished engineer and founding Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. Life Dick Tizard was the son of Sir Henry Tizard. He was chosen by Sir John Cockcroft as a founding F ...

, founding Fellow of Churchill College. Significantly, it did not extend the right to stand as a candidate for election to Parliament to under-21s. The

age of candidacy Age of candidacy is the minimum age at which a person can legally hold certain elected government offices. In many cases, it also determines the age at which a person may be eligible to stand for an election or be granted ballot access. The firs ...

for elections in the United Kingdom was lowered from 21 to 18 in 2006, with the passing of the

Electoral Administration Act 2006 The Electoral Administration Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed on 11 July 2006. Among its main provisions, the Act: * Provides a legislative framework for setting up a "Coordinated Online Record of Electors", kn ...

Local government

It abolished plural voting in local government, except in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

References

{{UK legislation Representation of the People Acts United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1969

Minimum age for electors

Local government

See also

References