• Tweeter

  • republish

According to a source familiar with the matter cited by the BBC, more than 1,000 people may have received two ballots. REUTERS / Hannah McKay

Members of the British Conservative Party were receiving this weekend the envelopes containing their ballot to elect by postal vote the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. But registry problems mean that some members have received more than one ballot, which could disrupt those elections.

With our correspondent in London, Marina Daras

Only about 180,000 members of the Conservative Party can vote in these elections since the British parliamentary system provides that it is the leader of the party with the most seats in Parliament who will become Prime Minister.

The inset conservatives have until Sunday, July 21 to vote, postmarked, and choose who Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt will be the next leader of the party and therefore the next prime minister.

But if some members are registered in two different constituencies, after a move or a registration error, they were able to receive two ballots. A problem that could affect more than a thousand voters.

Members have already been warned that they will be expelled from the party if they send two ballots, but the Conservative party has very little means to verify that this does not happen.

The Electoral Commission, the independent body that oversees the British elections to ensure its integrity, has no role in this election, which is governed only by the Conservative Party's internal rules.

► Also to listen: United Kingdom: Johnson or Hunt, what conservative activists say