Maldives citizens lose their right to vote in UK elections

The ability of Commonwealth citizens to vote in our elections means that changes to the membership of the Commonwealth have a knock-on impact on who can vote. (It also means that Mozambique and Rwandan citizens can vote here – surely the obscurest group with the franchise given that neither country was part of the British empire but they were admitted to the Commonwealth for political reasons.)

The latest change, following the news about The Gambia, is that Maldivians have now lost the vote. Their country left the Commonwealth last year under pressure over human rights, and the relevant legislative change has just come in.