THE mayor has made an impassioned plea for the people of Reading to get out and vote in the face of increasing apathy for the General and council elections next week.

With only six days left in what has been one of the most fiercely-fought and least predictable General Election campaigns for decades, Cllr Tony Jones is reminding people that every vote counts — and can make a huge difference to the outcome.

He said: “People feel strongly about voting in other countries where they fight for democracy and the right to vote and can queue around the corner just to cast their vote.

“There have been narrow majorities in past General Elections like in Reading East. In 2005 all it needed was an extra 500 people to go out and vote and it could have been a rather different MP, and a different party that had got into government.

“I would encourage everybody get to the polling station and put their mark on the ballot paper.

“You don’t have to be a geek or an anorak to be worried about voting and to be honest, if you don’t have an opinion about the way schools are run and our hospital then someone else will and make that decision for you. Voting is a right and a privilege and with that comes responsibility to use it.”

This year, only 107,025 people in Reading Borough have registered to vote — a decrease of 7.5 per cent on last year when 115,792 people registered for the local election.

The exact figures for the numbers registered in the Reading East and Reading West constituencies were unavailable at the time of going to press, but it is estimated that nationally, fewer people have registered, partly because changes to the rules mean that every individual has to register separately, instead of just the head of household.

The last time there was a local election in Reading combined with a General Election in 2010, 62 per cent of those eligible turned out to the polls. In the local elections last year just 29 per cent turned out.

And in the last two General Elections, non-voters outnumbered the largest single party majority in both Reading East and Reading West.

When Rob Wilson first took the Reading East seat in 2005 with 15,557 votes, there were 29,132 residents in the constituency who did not vote.

Clive Jones, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Wokingham, said he predicts more than 30 per cent of residents will not vote in the borough.

He said: “For young people, many of them say they weren’t ever encouraged to vote or it doesn’t run in their family. Well, voting is the only way they’re going to make these important changes to their generation’s lives.”

Rob Wilson, Conservative candidate for Reading East, said: “The next Government of this country, of whatever political persuasion, is going to be spending billions of pounds worth of taxpayers’ money, making huge, even monumental decisions on behalf of the entire electorate. It is very important that every citizen has had the opportunity to express their opinion before any government does that.”

And veteran campaigner Bill Gulliver, 79, of Whitley, said: “It is the most important piece of the democratic process. I could go down to Broad Street and criticise The Queen or the Prime Minister and be fine. If you did that in some other countries you would be imprisoned or executed.”