“Spiritual influence” and democracy

Fom today's Times:

Influencing voters is illegal, judge tells priests and imams

Dominic Kennedy, Investigations Editor

Religious leaders were told by a judge yesterday that it was unlawful to instruct their followers to vote for particular candidates in an election.

Richard Mawrey, QC, an election commissioner, said that priests and imams could be committing the 19th-century offence of "spiritual influence" if they told their supporters it was forbidden to vote for a certain candidate.

Mr Mawrey, a High Court deputy judge, gave the warning as the case opened against Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of the London borough of Tower Hamlets, who is accused of winning re-election last year by telling Muslims that it was their religious duty to vote for him. Mr Rahman is fighting all allegations against him.

Spiritual influence in elections was last alleged in a British court against Irish Catholic clergy in Victorian times. They were accused of ordering their rural parishioners to vote for candidates sympathetic to Home Rule.

I would have thought that Catholic priests have never stopped doing this, telling their flocks not to vote for candidates who favour contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc to this day.

Obviously we don't like priests telling workers how to vote, but isn't making this a criminal offence against the principles of democracy? Once you start making it illegal for people to tell others how to vote, where does it stop? It's like the slippery slope those who shout "No Platform" want us to venture on to.

Let priests and imans issue their calls on how to vote. And let us denounce and oppose them.