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'TERRORISTS, RAPISTS AND PAEDOPHILES COULD GET VOTE' TO MEET EU HUMAN RIGHTS LAWS
Express Online
December 18, 2013 Wednesday 11:20 AM GMT
SOME prisoners should be allowed to vote in elections, MPs and peers
are due to say today in a report that has sparked fury.
One Tory MP branded the findings "spineless and morally confused".
The row follows the European Court of Human Rights ruling that banning
convicts from voting is unlawful.
In 2011, MPs called overwhelmingly to keep the ban but the Government
promised to respond to the court's rulings.
MPs and peers report today on three options favouring the vote for
prisoners serving 12 months or less - in line with magistrates'
maximum sentence - and for all to be entitled to register up to six
months before release.
MP Dominic Raab said: "This report proposes the most politically
spineless and morally confused of all the options. It would give the
vote to terrorists, rapists and paedophiles."
Dominic Raab called the report "morally confused" [PA]
Prime Minister David Cameron has made clear he does not want to
extend votes to prisoners, telling the Commons it would make him
"physically ill".
However the report notes that Britain is under a "binding international
law obligation" to comply with the ECHR ruling. It warns that defying
it would be "completely unprecedented" and have "grave implications".
"A refusal to implement the Court's judgment, which is binding under
international law, would not only undermine the standing of the UK,
it would also give succour to those states in the Council of Europe
who have a poor record of protecting human rights and who could
regard the UK's action as setting a precedent for them to follow,"
said the committee of MPs and peers.
The UK is one of only five of the 47 Council of Europe members to
ban all convicted prisoners from voting, alongside Armenia, Bulgaria,
Estonia and Russia.
Granting the vote to those serving less than 12 months was unlikely
to affect more than around 7,000 people in any election, said the
committee.
It recommended giving inmates postal votes for their home
constituencies, and predicted that prisoners' votes were "unlikely
to have a bearing on the outcome of elections".
Rapists, terrorists and paedophiles could have access to the ballot
box [Alamy]
From: A. Papazian
Express Online
December 18, 2013 Wednesday 11:20 AM GMT
SOME prisoners should be allowed to vote in elections, MPs and peers
are due to say today in a report that has sparked fury.
One Tory MP branded the findings "spineless and morally confused".
The row follows the European Court of Human Rights ruling that banning
convicts from voting is unlawful.
In 2011, MPs called overwhelmingly to keep the ban but the Government
promised to respond to the court's rulings.
MPs and peers report today on three options favouring the vote for
prisoners serving 12 months or less - in line with magistrates'
maximum sentence - and for all to be entitled to register up to six
months before release.
MP Dominic Raab said: "This report proposes the most politically
spineless and morally confused of all the options. It would give the
vote to terrorists, rapists and paedophiles."
Dominic Raab called the report "morally confused" [PA]
Prime Minister David Cameron has made clear he does not want to
extend votes to prisoners, telling the Commons it would make him
"physically ill".
However the report notes that Britain is under a "binding international
law obligation" to comply with the ECHR ruling. It warns that defying
it would be "completely unprecedented" and have "grave implications".
"A refusal to implement the Court's judgment, which is binding under
international law, would not only undermine the standing of the UK,
it would also give succour to those states in the Council of Europe
who have a poor record of protecting human rights and who could
regard the UK's action as setting a precedent for them to follow,"
said the committee of MPs and peers.
The UK is one of only five of the 47 Council of Europe members to
ban all convicted prisoners from voting, alongside Armenia, Bulgaria,
Estonia and Russia.
Granting the vote to those serving less than 12 months was unlikely
to affect more than around 7,000 people in any election, said the
committee.
It recommended giving inmates postal votes for their home
constituencies, and predicted that prisoners' votes were "unlikely
to have a bearing on the outcome of elections".
Rapists, terrorists and paedophiles could have access to the ballot
box [Alamy]
From: A. Papazian