OBE for ex-head of the Electoral Commission

OBE for ex-head of the Electoral Commission

7 January 2015

DOWNPATRICK man Seamus Magee, the former head of the Electoral Commission in Northern Ireland, was delighted to be awarded the OBE in the New Year Honours.

He is one of only 14 people in the Province to have been nominated for the prestigious accolade and says he is delighted to share his honour with his colleagues at the Commission and his family.

Mr. Magee — who left the Commission last June following the European election — was awarded the OBE for services to democracy and is now looking forward to collecting his award at a ceremony later this year.

He admitted he was somewhat “surprised, but delighted” to receive a letter informing him that he had been nominated for an OBE in recognition of his work for an organisation which sets standards for how well elections are run and scrutinises political parties’ election finances.

For the last decade, Mr. Magee was heavily involved in major public awareness campaigns encouraging people to register to vote, and educating the electorate as to what documentation to bring with them to the polling station.

He was instrumental in setting up the Commission in Northern Ireland in 2001 and spent the next 13 years as the head of an organisation which now commands widespread respect of all the political parties.

He explained: “Before the Commission was established there were serious allegations and perceptions about electoral fraud, with a spotlight on electoral registration and misuse of postal and proxy votes. In 2001 the Commission conducted a survey which showed that 61 per cent of the electorate in Northern Ireland were of the view that the electoral system was open to fraud or abuse.

“The challenge for the Commission was to modernise the electoral process and to build confidence in the democratic process generally. In 2002, individual electoral registration was introduced alongside photo identification at polling stations to enable people to vote. The most recent survey carried out by the Commission showed that there has been a significant increase in confidence in the electoral process right across the board and that the integrity of the process is secure.”

Mr. Magee also revealed that with the Province’s electoral registration process now “bedded down” the model has been adopted in England, Scotland and Wales from this year.

He continued: “I just happened to be the Head of the Electoral Commission and while I have been awarded the OBE, the award is a recognition of the hard work of everyone who works for the Commission. I was the lucky person to be leading a very professional team.

“Working for the Commission is a team effort. You can’t achieve anything working on your own. Credit also has to go to the political parties who worked very effectively with the Commission. We have a good working relationship with them all.”

Mr. Magee explained that as a result of the hard work of the Commission and many others, Northern Ireland now has a “very accurate and complete” electoral register. He said the challenge for colleagues in the Electoral Office in Northern Ireland is to maintain it.

The Downpatrick man, who has worked for the Commission in Northern Ireland and across the UK, also spent time in Guinea-Bissau in West Africa in 2012 and 2014 overseeing Presidential elections as part of an all-party Westminster group. He describes his time there as a “very humbling experience.”

“This award is a recognition of the efforts of the Commission’s staff in Northern Ireland and across the UK. My wife Carol, daughters Catherine and Karen and my mother are all delighted for me and are very proud of this achievement.

“It is an honour to be the first member of the Commission across the UK to receive such an honour. It is truly a first and I would like to sincerely thank all the people I have worked with over the years. They were all excellent and extremely professional colleagues. I wish to share my award with them.”