English Common law has long provided that Peers in the House of Lords cannot vote at Parliamentary elections. Since 1999 (and the House of Lords Act) it is the fact of being a member of the second chamber that actually prevents Peer from voting. However, Hereditary Peers who are excluded from membership of the House of Lords are able to vote, under the terms of the 1999 Act. Members of the House of Lords can vote in all other elections (European, local, referenda etc.).
Matthew Purvis, House of Lords Research Clerk, has provided (via his Twitter account @mtthwprvs) a link to Library Note LLN 2012/022 ? Members of the House of Lords: Voting at Parliamentary Elections ? which provides the background information.
From the voting rights standpoint and according to Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, with regard to this incapacity to vote at general elections, and particularly how it relates to the European Convention on Human Rights:
?Parliament consists of the three estates of the Sovereign, the Lords and the Commons. The Lords sit in their own right. The Commons are elected by the remainder of the estate of commoners to represent them in Parliament. There was therefore no case for the Lords to vote to elect representatives, since they were able to sit in Parliament anyway.?
In terms of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), he added that:
?Article 3 Protocol 1 of the ECHR provides for a requirement to hold regular, free and fair elections, and the Strasbourg courts have taken this to include the individual right to vote. However that right to vote is not absolute and limitations may be imposed on it. The fact that Members of the House of Lords have a voice in Parliament makes it legitimate to deprive them of a right to have their voice also heard through their elected representative in the Commons.?
The above ruling by the ECHR could be viewed as a favourable legal precedent for old soldier Harry Shindler, who currently has his voting rights case before this Strasbourg court, having lost his right to vote after 15 years overseas and, therefore, the right to have his voice heard through his elected representative in the Commons.