None of the amendments to the Electoral Code since 2014 address the long-standing concern over prisoners’ right to vote.70 Article 42 (1) of the Constitution deprives “those placed under judicial interdiction or serving a prison sentence” of the right to vote, regardless of the nature and severity of the crime committed. The Constitution’s categorical exclusion of  prisoners’ voting rights is repeated in Articles 243, 307, 350 and 396 of the Electoral Code for parliamentary, presidential, European Parliament and municipal elections, respectively. The Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR recommended in both the 2011 and 2014 joint opinions to amend the Constitution and the Electoral Code to allow for individual assessment of the proportionality between the restriction on voting rights and the severity of the offence. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly held that a blanket disenfranchisement of
prisoners, irrespective of the nature and severity of their offences and their individual circumstances, is not compatible with Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention of Human Rights.