The right for candidates to add their own seals has survived repeated reforms of election law, currently regulated by the Representation of the People Act.

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The election court will focus on whether the leaflet and a newsletter breached the 1983 Representation of the People Act.

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But it took women's involvement in World War I to bring the first Representation of the People Act in 1918, which gave the vote to all women aged over 30.

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However, he stressed there was "a lot of flexibility" in the European ruling, and that Parliament had sovereignty over the issue of who was able to vote, as any change would require a Commons vote for amendments to the Representation of the People Act.

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