5,000 signatures reached
To: The electoral commission / UK Parliament
Expand the powers of the Electoral Commission against misinformation
Allow the Electoral Commission to enforce fines, levies or any other penalties against purposefully misleading statistics and figures used in election and referendum campaigns.
Why is this important?
After a closely fought contest, and the final result which is beyond contention, we must confront the prospect that a portion of the referendum campaigning was based on misinformation, and sometimes outright lying.
This petition seeks to draw attention to this, given that the tactics used in this referendum on both sides, such as scaremongering, will more than likely be utilised again, and are damaging to the democratic character of this country.
We ask that powers against these be expanded from its current form:
“While we have regulatory duties relating to campaign spending, including in relation to political advertising/election material, we have very few powers to deal with the content of material published by candidates and parties, or their general conduct. In most cases we will not be able to deal with such complaints, which should instead be made directly to the party or candidate responsible for the material.”
