Representation of the People Act 1981
In a British act, the Representation of the People Act 1981 , a change in the electoral law was codified, which should prevent in future that prisoners of paramilitary Republicans of Northern Ireland can run for election in the British House of Commons .
The specific reason for the change in electoral law was the electoral victory of the imprisoned IRA member Bobby Sands in Maze Prison , who was elected to the British House of Commons in April 1981 and died 26 days after his election victory in the Northern Irish constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone as a result of his politically motivated hunger strike . The aim of the strike was to regain political prisoner status, Northern Ireland's Special Category Status .
In the British election law of 1981 stipulates that no person in the House of Commons elections can run that for an offense in the UK or the Republic of Ireland was sentenced to more than a year in prison in the past or is convicted during a held option. This also applies in the same way to elected members of the lower house.
Because of this law no prisoners could run and Owen Carron was chosen as a compromise candidate of the national forces in Northern Ireland, who made no secret of his sympathy for the Sinn Féin and won the by-election in Fermanagh & South Tyrone with a large majority.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Nicholas Whyte: Fermanagh and South Tyrone 1973–1982 . Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive. March 25, 2003. Retrieved December 25, 2010.