A British ex-pat of many years’ last week failed in his bid to overturn the ban on expatriates voting in UK elections once they have lived abroad for more than 15 years.
Harry Schindler aged 91, who has lived with his Italian wife in Italy since 1982, claimed that the ban renders him disenfranchised and deprived of his ability to participate in his native country’s elections.
He also said that, as a WWII veteran, he is puzzled as to why the UK Government should find reasons not to allow people to vote, and pointed out that both France and Italy have members of their national assemblies exclusively elected by expatriates.
However, the judges at the European Court of Human Justice (ECHJ) dismissed his claim, as they said that the UK Government was entitled to exercise discretion, technically known as its “margin of appreciation” in terms of interpreting how to enforce its citizens’ rights to free elections.
The judges added that the court was satisfied that the impugned legislation struck a fair balance between the conflicting interests at stake, namely the genuine interest of the applicant, as a British citizen, to participate in parliamentary elections in his country of origin and the chosen legislative policy of respondent state to confine the parliamentary franchise to those citizens with a close connection with the United Kingdom and who would therefore be most directly affected by its laws.
The case would have had far-reaching repercussions had Mr Schindler been successful, as there are an estimated 5.5 million UK citizens living abroad, although no more than 13,000 were registered on UK electoral rolls in 2008.