Lord Wallace of Saltaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) Commonwealth, and (2) Irish, citizens they estimate are resident in Gibraltar and therefore eligible to vote in the forthcoming EU referendum.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The vast majority of Commonwealth citizens resident in Gibraltar have British nationality. According to figures provided by the Clerk to the Gibraltar Parliament, 23,278 people were registered to vote in the Gibraltar general election which took place on 26 November 2015. Those who do not have British nationality are ineligible to vote in Gibraltar general elections.

The most recent election in which Irish and non-British Commonwealth citizens were eligible to vote in Gibraltar was the European Parliamentary election held on 22 May 2014. In that election, according to figures provided by the Clerk to the Gibraltar Parliament, 19 Irish and 22 non-British Commonwealth citizens were registered to vote.

The British Government estimates that these figures would be similar for the forthcoming EU referendum, in which Commonwealth (including British) and Irish citizens who are registered in the Gibraltar register would be eligible to vote.