Expat serviceman loses fight for vote

Voting rights expire after 15 years for British citizens living abroad, but Harry Shindler, 92, argued that the restriction violated his “right to free elections”.

But judges in Strasbourg ruled that allowing UK non-residents to continuing voting for 15 years was “not an insubstantial period of time” and it was up to the British Government whether to choose a cut-off point.

Mr Shindler – who lives in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, with his Italian wife – left the UK in 1982 on retirement from the Army.

After being blocked from voting in the latest general election, in May 2010, he went to court to challenge the time limit guaranteed using the Human Rights Convention.

He said that, as a retired serviceman receiving a state pension paid into a British bank account on which he paid tax, and with family members in the UK, he felt the 15-year voting limit had disenfranchised him.