The Council of Europe (CoE) has issued an unprecedented warning that next year's general election could be held unlawfully because of the UK's foot-dragging over giving prisoners the vote.

In the Hirst v. the United Kingdom case in 2004, the European court of human rights found the UK's blanket ban on prisoners voting to be unlawful. The government's delaying tactics in implementing this decision have been heavily criticised by many human rights groups, lawyers and MPs.

The CoE committee of ministers' statement on the implementation of the Hirst case judgement, issued on 7 December 2009 "expresses serious concern that the substantial delay in implementing the judgment has given rise to a significant risk that the next United Kingdom general election, which must take place by June 2010, will be performed in a way that fails to comply with the convention."

The committee of ministers, which supervises the European court of human rights and the implementation of its judgements, said it would consider the issue again in March 2010.

At the end of November 2009, the Prison Reform Trust issued a formal complaint to the committee of ministers criticising political briefings to the press claiming that the government has no plans to scrap the blanket ban on prisoners voting before the general election.

Read coverage of this story in the Guardian

Read the Council of Europe's decision here