INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ‘INCLUSION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN ELECTORAL PROCESS’

1. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ‘INCLUSION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN ELECTORAL PROCESS’ Session II: Efficiency and efficacy of the existing facilitation to PwDs for electoral participation Antonio Spinelli Head of Mission, International IDEA South Asia

2. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities • Most efforts supporting electoral inclusion, participation and access of PwDs focus on barriers relating to physical illnesses and disabilities of voters • Electoral exclusion faced by voters affected by mental illnesses needs greater attention • Electoral inclusion of voters with mental illnesses does not receive equal levels of recognition and support to those provided to physically disabled voters

3. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities THE CASE OF COUNTRY “X” • Provisions were considered to disqualify those voters who, on election day, were considered to be “clearly and publicly known as mentally ill” even if they had not been “declared as mentally ill by a judicial body”

4. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities • Why do mentally disabled voters have to be discriminated in the first place? • Why should the vote of a mentally disabled person count less than that of a “mentally-abled” citizen?

5. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities 3 broad categories/levels of severity: • mental disabilities • cognitive and intellectual disabilities • mental illnesses and psychiatric disabilities • Not all mental illnesses necessarily impair the ability of a person to understand political issues, or make reasonable decisions and choices, when voting

6. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities • Electoral frameworks of most countries still lay down normative and procedural barriers limiting the inclusion and equal participation of their mentally disabled citizens in electoral processes • Out of 63 democratic countries, only 4 countries place no restrictions at the national level on the right to vote for persons affected by mental disabilities

7. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities • Justification: Voters with mental disabilities are (or may be) incapable of understanding the electoral process, its mechanisms and the political issues at a stake well enough to cast an informed vote • Justification: Voters with mental disabilities are (or may be) particularly vulnerable, when voting, to undue influence by unscrupulous individuals

8. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities • The “harm” to the legitimacy of an election made by the presumably non-informed vote of reduced numbers of mentally disabled voters is minimal • The more serious the mental illness is, the less are the chances that a mentally disabled voter would be interested (or even be able) to vote and appear at a polling station

9. Expanding electoral inclusion to all Persons with Disabilities • Shouldn't instead there be barriers on grounds of mental infirmity for those who want to be elected?

10. THANK YOU