Sturgeon urged to give prisoners referendum vote

NICOLA Sturgeon today came under pressure to allow some prisoners to vote in the independence referendum to assist their “rehabilitation.”

The Scottish Government has said that no inmates will be given the ballot, despte a legal challenge being laucnhed last week by a group of inmates who say it breaches their human rights.

The UK Government is being forced to hand some inmates the vote in elections to comply with human rights laws, but legal chiefs say is not necessary for a referendum.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ms Sturgeon was appearing before MSPs on a Holyrood committee looking into the referendum this morning committee and was told there should be some discussion about the “political choice” the Government is free to make.

Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “There is at least an argument to be made that prisoners voting could be seen as part of their rehabilitation, that there is a moral case in favour of it and even if there’s a case for maintaining a case for some degree of prisoners voting, that should be for a court to decide.”

He said there is a difference between prisoners who have been in jail for years and others who are inside for a “few days or months” for minor offences, but it happens in the run-up to the referendum.

But Ms Sturgeon: “We have a situation just where people who commit crimes and get sent to jail don’t get to vote - I don’t believe that a good case has been made for changing that.”

The Law Society of Scotland has said that the prohibition on prisoners voting in the referendum in Scotland should comply with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because it is not a normal election.

The Coalition Government at Westminster has been forced to draw up plans extending the right to vote to some prisoners - even though David Cameron has said the prospect makes him feel “sick.”

It followed a 2005 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which found the UK had breached the Convention by imposing a general ban, forced a rethink.