People with intellectual disabilities in Spain win right to vote in EU elections

SPAIN has voted to reform the electoral system to allow all people with intellectual disabilities the right to vote in the upcoming European elections.

The law change will mean around 100,000 people who had previously been barred from voting in Spain will have their voting rights restored.

It come after organisations representing disabled people in Spain including Plena Inclusion launched the #MyVoteCounts campaign to demand urgent reform.

“Despite the fact that everybody has the right to vote, there still are people who cannot do it on an equal basis with others,” said a Plena Inclusion spokesperson after the vote.

The EU’s Economic and Social Committee had called the lack of voting rights for mentally impaired EU Citizens ‘particularly worrisome.’

Inclusion Europe President Jyrki Pinomaa said: “Taking away the right to vote from people with disabilities in fact violates the Convention, which all EU countries and also the EU itself have ratified.

“The next step should be to make elections accessible, for example by using easy-to-read language and allowing support persons in the polling station.”