The Justice Ministry has said it is still not in a position to comment on whether the law denying Maltese prisoners the right to vote should be amended in view of a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment against the UK.
Based on the UK tradition, Malta currently bans the right to vote to all those serving a prison sentence at the time of an election.
The ECHR ruled that banning convicted British killer John Hirst from the polls seven years ago had breached his right to participate in the democratic process and it ordered the UK government to amend the law by August or face sanctions.
Asked whether Malta might also be forced to do the same in view of the ECHR decision, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry told The Sunday Times that the government was closely monitoring developments in the UK but was still not in a position to pronounce itself on the issue.
“We are awaiting the opinion of the Attorney General as his office is still studying the case,” the spokesman said.
The issue has become a hot potato in the UK as the majority in the House of Commons disagrees with the ECHR’s decision. However, the UK’s Attorney General said that the Commons’ vote will not prevent the country from adhering to the Strasbourg-court ruling as the country is bound by the European Convention of Human Rights.
Although in member states like Denmark and Sweden there is no form of electoral ban for prisoners, some impose partial bans.
Giovanni Bonello, who served on the ECHR and was one of the judges voting in favour of the Hirst case, explained that the court did not decide that prisoners, or that all prisoners, had a right to vote.
“What the court decided is that the UK system, which has a blanket ban directed at all prisoners without any distinctions, losing their voting rights, is wrong.”
Dr Bonello said a national law had to distinguish between categories of prisoners, and should not put everyone in the same basket.
According to English law, a person detained for two days for having failed to pay a parking fine and a serial killer jailed for life are in exactly the same position – both lose their right to vote. This is what the court found unacceptable.
Apart from Malta and the UK, the only other European countries with an outright ban on prisoners voting are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Luxembourg and Romania.
In some member states, severe restrictions make it very difficult in practice for offenders to vote. Ireland lifted its ban in 2006, passing legislation enabling all prisoners to vote by post.
Germany’s law actually urges prisons to encourage their inmates to vote, although it does ban those whose crimes undermine democratic order, such as political insurgents.