Prisoners fight ban on voting in Scottish independence referendum

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/24/prisoners-fight-ban-scottish-independence-referendum

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Two prisoners are to ask the supreme court to overturn a ban on inmates voting in Scotland's independence referendum.

Leslie Moohan, 31, and Andrew Gillon, 46, are serving life sentences for murder and claim the ban on taking part in September's poll infringes their human rights under European law.

Their legal team, led by human rights lawyer Aidan O'Neill QC, will urge the court on Thursday to overturn previous rulings by Scottish courts upholding the ban.

With the referendum less than two months away, the case is being fast-tracked. The court has indicated it could issue a speedy decision.

If they win, the two men will have to apply for a postal ballot or nominate a proxy voter. They are not seeking to have the referendum delayed or stopped.

Their challenge hinges on repeated rulings by the European court of human rights that the UK's blanket ban on inmates voting in elections is a breach of their rights. The UK is one of only a few countries in the world with such a ban.

After repeatedly stalling on its pledge to introduce a limited right to vote, the government is facing imminent rulings that could see compensation being awarded to several men who challenged the UK over the delay.

In the Scottish case, the two prisoners have also argued that under UK referendum law, the Scottish government had the freedom to decide who could or could not vote on 18 September: it allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to vote for the first time, but explicitly barred prisoners.

At earlier hearings, the Scottish courts upheld the Scottish government's argument that European court rulings on prisoners voting did not include referendums, and were limited to elections.

In a Court of session judgment upholding the ban one of the judges, Lady Paton, said: "We take the view that there is no clearly identifiable common law fundamental right to vote in the UK and certainly not a clearly identifiable common law fundamental right to vote in a referendum.

"Thus, in our opinion, no such right is contravened by the Scottish Independence Referendum (Franchise) Act 2013."

The lead judge, Lord Glennie, said in an earlier hearing that it was up to the court in Strasbourg to extend a prisoner's right to vote to referendums.

Gillon was jailed in 1998 for killing his friend, Gary Johnstone, 25, who was repeatedly hit on the head with a spade in Bathgate, West Lothian. Moohan is serving at least 15 years for murdering David Redpath, from Peterhead, at a hostel in Edinburgh in 2008.