PEOPLE should be able to state their nationality as Welsh when registering to vote, a Llandysul councillor has argued.

Ceredigion County Council member Cllr Keith Evans, believes more should be done to encourage the Electoral Commission to allow people to register as Welsh rather than British.

He called for the Welsh Language commissioner and the Welsh Local Government Association to get involved at a recent language committee meeting at Penmorfa.

When registering to vote, people select which country they live in and can complete the form in Welsh but cannot select it as a nationality.

Scottish, English and Northern Irish residents can also only select British as nationality.

Cllr Evans was reminded of a recent Electoral Commission consultation regarding changes to the electoral act as well as the matter being outside the “remit” of the commissioner as it was not a “linguistic issue.”

He added that he felt it should be on the local government agenda.

“If you’re going to change an act in anyway you have to start somewhere. This could be a change for the four countries and I accept you might be British at the end of the day but you have the right to say you are Welsh. We have to start the process,” said Cllr Evans.

It was suggested that a Notice of Motion to council may be the way forward and that was noted by the committee.

At a previous committee meeting the corporate lead officer, democratic services Lowri Edwards said that the National Electoral Registration legislation only refers to British citizens, as opposed to individual nationalities and it was stated that the Electoral Registration Officer must conform with this legislation.