June 13, 2014
Jail non-vote could sway election
Jail non-vote could sway election
A prison reform campaigner says legislation denying prisoners the right to vote could affect the result in some Maori electorates.
Kim Workman from Rethinking Crime and Punishment says a High Court challenge to the legislation by Paremoremo inmate and self-styled prison lawyer Arthur Taylor raises some interesting issues.
Taylor claims the law is not only breaches the Bill of Rights, as the Attorney General warned when it was passed ion 2010, but also of Article Three of the Treaty of Waitangi which extends to Maori all the rights and privileges of British subjects.
Mr Workman says Maori are six times more likely than non-Maori to end up in prison, and therefore six times more likely to be deprived of the right to vote.
That means about 4300 Maori will be denied the right to vote in September’s general election.
About 22 percent of Maori in prison identify as coming from Ngapuhi and Te Taitokerau, and a one-quarter of all Maori live in the Auckland region, so that could affect what is likely to be a close race in Te Taitokerau between incumbent Hone Harawira from Internet Mana and Labour’s Kelvin Davis.
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