THE Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that prisoners must be allowed to vote in the June 2 general election. In its ruling in an application brought by two prisoners, the court held thast it is unconstitutional to deny prisoners the vote and ordered the Independent Electoral Commission to register convicts and awaiting-trialists who were behind bars during the period of registration, which began last November. The application was brought by the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of fraud convict Arnold August and fraud awaiting-trialist Sibongile Pearl Mabutho. The Cabinet decided last year that prisoners should not be allowed to vote because the electoral budget is not big enough to cover the cost of registering them. The Pretoria High Court rejected a challenge to that decision in February, with Judge Johan Els saying the predicament prisoners found themselves in was of their own making and that they had deprived themselves of the opportunity to vote.