Brits living abroad urged to claim their votes in General Election

More than five million Britons living abroad have just days to register to vote in next month's crucial British General Election, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said Monday.

With the clock ticking away for registration by the April 20 deadline, the British Electoral Commission urged citizens living overseas to claim their to vote before the door is closed.

Australia is home to the biggest number of British expats, amounting to around 1.3 million, with a similar number residing in the United States and Canada.

New Zealand is home to 215,000 Britons, slightly more than the 212,000 residing in South Africa. Estimates put the number of British subjects living in China at 36,000, with 45,000 in Singapore and 13,000 in Malaysia.

An FCO spokesman in London said: "It is important for any UK citizen overseas that wishes to register for a postal vote to do so as quickly as possible so that they can receive and return their postal ballot packs in good time before polling day (May 7).

"Estimates show that there could be as many as 5.5 million UK citizens living overseas. The most recent figures showed that there were only 15,849 overseas voters on UK electoral registers."

Since the introduction of a new online registration portal in June 2014, tens of thousands of UK citizens from all around the world have logged on to use the system. In comparison, ahead of last year's European Parliamentary elections just 7,079 overseas voter registration forms were downloaded, using the previous paper application form.

UK citizens who have previously been registered to vote in a UK Parliamentary constituency in the last 15 years may be eligible to register as an overseas elector. Endit