Toronto, Canada - MUSLIM women who are completely veiled will still be allowed to vote in Canada, despite a new law tightening requirements for voter identification, a federal elections official said today.
The amended Canada Elections Act, passed in June, now requires all voters in federal elections to prove their identity and residential address when vote.
The first option listed by the federal agency Elections Canada is to show one piece of government-issued photo identification such as a driver's licence.
Veiled Muslims showing such photo identification will have other options, Elections Canada spokesman John Enright said.
"Either you unveil, produce a second piece of identification (from a list of identification approved by Elections Canada) or get someone to vouch for you," he said.
The new requirements will be tested for the first time on September 17 in three federal by-elections in Quebec.
Controversy over veiled voters erupted in Quebec's provincial elections earlier this year, but Mr Enright does not expect it to be an issue for a national vote.
"I don't recall it having been an issue federally and frankly don't expect it to be an issue this time," he said.
In March, Quebec's chief electoral officer ruled that all voters in provincial elections would have to show their faces, despite initially deciding Muslim women could vote without unveiling.