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Your Vote - Have you Lost it?


You may recall the furore that grew out of the claim by UK prisoners that they should retain the right to vote whilst in jail. Along with the support from some corners that suggested that to disenfranchise this section of society was in contravention of their human rights. This matter is yet to be finally resolved and no doubt some interesting arguments are yet to be heard.


However, did you also realise that you will also eventually be disenfranchised after you have left the UK. With the exception of a few categories, including the military and the civil service, anyone that lives and works overseas for a period of 15 years, will lose their right to vote in UK Parliamentary elections.


The UK is alone in removing this right to vote from its citizens. So law-abiding, hard-working expatriates can find themselves living, working and paying taxes (often also in the UK) unable to vote in government elections in either country, unable to take part in the democratic process to chose the elected bodies that both tax them and govern their affairs.


The position taken by the UK government in opting to disenfranchise its citizens is currently being challenged by Mr James Preston who has lost his UK voting rights after working for his employer in Madrid for over 15 years. Mr Preston argues that this "15-Year Rule" acts as a penalty on those British citizens choosing to live abroad, stripping them of their most fundamental democratic right, and therefore, infringes his fundamental right of free movement within the European Union. Mr Preston affirms, “I’m a British citizen and only a British citizen, married to a British wife and both of us work for British firms.


I read British papers, my


children attend a British school and my estate taxes are owed to the British government when I die. This law penalizes me for taking advantage of the opportunities that the British government promised to all citizens when Britain joined the EU. The spirit of this law is entirely inconsistent with British democratic traditions as well as our foreign policy, where we work to bring democracy to far off corners of the world.”


In March 2010 Mr Preston applied for a Judicial Review of the Government’s continued denial of


15


this right which places these citizens in a group of those not allowed to vote. A group which includes children, the mentally ill, and (for now) criminals. He is represented by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Brick Court Chambers, both of whom are acting on a pro bono basis in view of the important constitutional issue raised by this case.


Mr Preston’s counsel, Romano Subiotto QC, states that, “The British voting law penalises British citizens who exercise their fundamental rights to move freely between European Union countries. It prevents British citizens from enjoying the same free movement rights guaranteed to the citizens of other EU countries. This law is an anachronism in this day and age of easy, quick, and reliable communications.”


During March 2011 the High Court ruled that Mr Preston has an arguable case that the “15-Year Rule” infringes EU law and ordered that there be a full hearing of the arguments later this year. It also ruled that in recognition of the fact that the claim raises an issue of general public importance, Mr Preston should not bear the full cost of arguing, and the court also limited the amount that Mr Preston would be liable to pay in legal costs in the event that the claim is unsuccessful. The next stage of the proceedings is for the UK Government to put forward detailed arguments as to why it believes the 15-Year Rule does not infringe Mr Preston's right of free movement within the EU.


So whilst the argument of the rights of convicted criminals rumbles on, perhaps some readers of The Quercy Local may have already found themselves innocent victims or an arbitrary rule which has left them with no vote anywhere!


It will


be interesting to see what argument the Government puts forward to defend its rule and to see whether a change to the rule follows.


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