Monday, 26 May 2014

the right to vote

RT, the 24-hour TV news channel in English, has made a very graphic point - that in 'western democracies' prisoners do not have the right to vote - but in the Ukraine they do:



A prisoner serving a life sentence fills out a ballot paper before casting his vote in a mobile ballot box in the maximum security zone of the Sofiyevskaya prison in the town of Volnyansk in the Zaparozhye region on May 25, 2014. — RT Ukraine elects president amid national rift

In 2008 over 5.3 million people in the United States were denied the right to vote because of felony disfranchisement. Approximately thirteen percent of the United States' population is African American, yet African Americans make up thirty-eight percent of the prison population.
Felony disenfranchisement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Germany the law even calls on prisons to encourage prisoners to vote. Only those convicted of electoral fraud and crimes undermining the "democratic order", such as treason are barred from voting, while in prison.
Felony disenfranchisement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also:
Votes for prisoners | Politics | The Guardian
BBC News - UK inmates lose right to vote ruling
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