Prisoner Voting

Prisoners serving sentences of 12 months or less will be allowed to vote for the first time in the forthcoming Shetland by-election. The Scottish Government has said it will take steps this week to align the franchise for the by-election with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled again that the UK's blanket ban preventing serving prisoners from voting represents a violation of article 3 of protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – the right to free elections. The court declined, however, to a