election-watch.eu

Brussels, 20 April 2022: Election-Watch.EU conducted a comparative study about persons with disabilities’ suffrage and accessibility rights within the 27 EU Member States for the 6th Human Rights Report of the European Disability Forum (EDF).  The results of the study will be published, presented and discussed in a Webinar on Monday, 16 May 2022. Those interested can register here for the zoom webinar.

The European Parliament elections take place every five years and constitute one of the largest democratic practices worldwide. Despite a minimum set of common rules in the European Union legal basis, EU Member States have almost complete discretion in how they arrange their elections. This creates disparities in the equal opportunities to participate in these elections among EU citizens and across countries; more so in the case of persons with disabilities.

In the 2019 European Parliament elections, approximately 400,000 persons with disabilities in 14 countries were deprived from their right to vote on the basis of their disability. Particularly worrying are the legal provisions in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland and Romania, where a person under total or partial guardianship is automatically denied voting rights.

More details about the participation of persons with disabilities in the 2019 European Parliament elections are available in the final report of the Election-Watch.EU Election Assessment Mission 2019. 

accessibility of elections, inclusion, people with disability, persons with disabilities, pwd, suffrage rights, voting rights