England for the Irish...

Prisoners take right to vote battle to Law Lords
[Published: Thursday 8, March 2007 - 11:33]

By Deborah McAleese

Two Ulster prisoners whose legal bid for permission to vote in the Assembly elections was thwarted by the High Court are set to take their battle to the House of Lords, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal today.

Armed robber Ciaran Toner and burglar Hugh Walsh have claimed that the blanket ban which prevents inmates from voting is a breach of their human rights and have decided to take their previously unsuccessful fight for the right to go to the polls all the way to the Law Lords.

The House of Lords is the final court of appeal on points of law in criminal cases for Northern Ireland, England and Wales.

Toner and Walsh last week launched an audacious bid to halt the March 7 elections until new legislation was brought into force that would permit them to vote.

However, Mr Justice Gillen said that the elections were a matter of profound importance to the people of Northern Ireland and that no impediment should be put in the path of progress and therefore dismissed the case.

The government is currently carrying out a consultation on the current arrangements in the UK which bar all convicted offenders held in UK prisons from voting, but it is not known how long it will be before proposals to dispose of the blanket ban are put before Parliament.

Toner and Walsh claim that disqualification from voting is a breach of their human rights. They both applied to the Electoral Office in January to join the electoral register but the province's chief electoral officer, Douglas Bain, refused the application stating that he had no room under existing law to reach a different decision.

The prisoners' solicitor, Garrett Greene, from McCann and McCann, confirmed to the Belfast Telegraph that he was now applying for leave from the Court of Appeal on behalf of his clients to take their case to the House of Lords.

"Prisoners should be given every opportunity to pay their debt to society, take responsibility for their lives and make plans for effective resettlement, this should include maintaining their right to vote.

"Giving prisoners the right to vote helps with their rehabilitation and keeps them in touch with society and their role as citizens within the community."

In January three Court of Session judges in Scotland ruled that denying prisoners the right to vote is incompatible with human rights.

Lords Abernethy, Nimmo Smith and Emslie ruled that Section 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 is incompatible with Article 3 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights - which states that no one should be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The case was brought by William Smith, who was serving a five-year sentence for drug dealing at the time of the 2003 Scottish Parliament elections and was refused the right to have his name on the voters roll.

Other Scottish prisoners are now taking legal action to prevent their elections from taking place in May until new legislation is passed permitting them to vote. In 2005 the European Court of Human Rights ruled a blanket ban stopping prisoners from voting was a breach of human rights.



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