Election fears over lack of prisoners’ vote
Poll will breach human rights, watchdog says
The forthcoming general election will be in breach of human rights unless the UK Government gives prisoners the vote, Europe’s human rights watchdog warned last night.
The declaration from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers comes six years after judges ruled that the UK’s total ban on votes for prisoners is illegal. But the ban is still in place and pressure has been mounting for months for it to be repealed in line with the Human Rights Court judgment.
In a decision published in Strasbourg, the Committee of Ministers voiced “serious concern” that the ruling has still not been applied in the UK in the run-up to a general election.
It said the growing number of people affected by the voting ban could mean more human rights cases against the government.
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