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Thursday, May 06, 2010

Contesting an Election: From Lawbreaker to Lawmaker

Contesting an Election: From Lawbreaker to Lawmaker

As the United Kingdom goes to the polls today to elect a new parliament, there's one group of people who won't be voting - the country's prison inmates.



Along with several other European countries, including Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, the UK doesn't allow sentenced prisoners to vote. Following a campaign by former inmate John Hirst, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in 2004 that the law was in breach of the European Human Rights Convention, but the British government still hasn't lifted the ban.

Other British people denied the vote include the royal family and hereditary peers in the House of Lords, the country's second parliamentary chamber.

2 comments:

Charles Cowling said...

Nice. Where was Rocky?

jailhouselawyer said...

He was there during some of the shooting...