“Not acceptable” – Electoral Commission on Green Party’s proxy vote tactics

Over the weekend I reported on complaints about the Green Party’s proxy voting campaign in Brighton, handing out forms pre-completed with the names of Green Party activists in apparent breach of the Electoral Commission Code of Conduct’s provisions designed to avoid proxy voting fraud.

The Electoral Commission hasn’t hedged its words when I asked them for a reaction:

Our non-statutory code of conduct says voters should not be encouraged to appoint a campaigner as a proxy to minimise the risk of suspicions that campaigners are placing undue pressure on voters. We have been in contact with the Green Party to make clear that this is not acceptable campaigning behaviour. They have now stopped these activities and we will continue monitoring to make sure there is no repeat.

UPDATE
The Electoral Commission subsequently issued a second statement, which takes a slightly different line from the first, though not quite the one the local press has taken:

Our non-statutory code of conduct says voters should not be encouraged to appoint a campaigner as a proxy to minimise the risk of suspicions that campaigners are placing undue pressure on voters. We have been in contact with the Green Party and they have confirmed that they are dealing with applications to appoint proxies in line with the code of conduct.