Laws which would force people to vote in elections – or make an active decision to opt out – have been put to the House of Commons by a Midland MP.
David Winnick (Lab Walsall North) said it was a “serious concern” that just two thirds of eligible voters took part in the last general election.
He proposed legislation which would create a civic obligation to vote or to state an intention to abstain.
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The proposed Bill is unlikely to become law but it was approved unanimously by MPs without a vote, allowing it to return to the Commons for further debate in March.
Mr Winnick insisted he was not calling for compulsory voting, because he believed people should be free to abstain.
But he said: “I have however long advocated, with others, legislation that there should be a civic obligation, or a duty, to vote in a general election.
“However, if this became law, if anyone had no wish to vote, so be it.”
Abstainers could inform the authorities that they did not wish to vote or turn up at a polling station but decline to cast a ballot, he said.
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“There would be no martyrs, nobody would need to go to prison because they don’t want to vote.”
He said he was concerned by the number of people who didn’t take part in elections.
In the 2010 General Election “those who did not vote where larger in number than those who voted for any one of the political parties,” he said.
“I would have thought that should be a matter of serious concern.”
Mr Winnick added: “If we want our democracy to flourish then surely common sense dictates that we should try and do what we can to get far more people to participate in elections than at the present moment.”
Critics would call his proposal an infringement of civil liberties, he said, but many laws obliged people to do things, such as paying road tax or sending their children to school.
“It may be that if the law was changed there may be so many people saying ‘no, we won’t obey the law’ – I think that’s unlikely but if it did happen – the law would have to be changed again.
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“But why not give it a try?”
The MP, aged 81, said: “I do hope very strongly believe that the House of Commons will give serious considering to what I am proposing. I hope I will live long enough to see such a change in the law.”
MPs backing the proposal included Jim Cunningham, Labour MP for Coventry South.