As the voting documents are being distributed, one part of Maltese society will not be expecting any deliveries.
Malta already has draconian punishments. Their voting rights should not be taken away
Based on the UK tradition, Malta bars people serving a prison term longer than one year from voting.
Those given a suspended sentence retain the right.
The matter was a controversial battlefield in the UK in 2001 when convicted killer John Hirst challenged the blanket ban on prisoners voting. He lost the case in the English High Court but subsequently won it in the European Court of Human Rights.
None of the main political parties was happy about the ruling; the last British Labour government put off doing anything in response.
In March 2011, the UK Government set up a Commission to look into the possibility of drafting a Bill of Rights and providing advice on reforming the European Court of Human Rights.
In Malta, no such debate is taking place but according to criminal lawyer Joe Giglio, the fact that a person has committed an offence should not have much to do with his right to vote.
“Malta already has draconian punishments, especially for people who are found in possession of drugs. Their voting rights should not be taken away from them,” he said. “They should be allowed to elect representatives to Parliament as it will also affect them once they’re out.”
Fr Hilary Tagliaferro, director of the Millennium chapel, agrees. “The conditions in prison are in the hands of the politicians in government, so why shouldn’t the prisoners have a say in choosing people who are compassionate?
“They should be given the right to vote. Why should a person who has committed a mistake be deprived of his/her human right? They have already been punished enough.”
His views are echoed by George Busuttil, director of prisoner advocacy NGO Mid-Dlam għad-Dawl, who believes that prisoners should retain the right to vote.
“However, at the moment, prisoners have more pressing concerns. For example, prisoners who are senior citizens are losing their income. Many think that prison is providing for them and they therefore have no need for pensions. Yet the truth is that inmates require additional items that need to be bought, such as clothes and covering for when it gets cold.”
Roberta Leprè, director of Victim Support Malta, which helps victims and witnesses of crime rebuild their lives, said: “We believe that prisoners should be entitled to vote as provided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in article 21, which lays down that everyone has the right to take part in their country’s government.”
“From our experience in meeting and supporting victims of crime, we are in a position to realise that their main aim of using our service is to deal with the trauma that they have gone through.
“Most of them also plead to seek justice, as well as claiming that it is their will to protect others who may end up in their situation.
“However, none of our service users has ever contested the treatment of prisoners.”
Like Malta and the UK, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Luxembourg and Romania also impose an outright ban on prisoners voting.