Political rights to be guaranteed for all people with disabilities

All Swiss and Swiss over the age of 18 must have the same political rights and duties. The National adopted a commission motion on Monday aimed at no longer excluding a certain category of people with disabilities.

(Keystone-ATS) Currently, according to the Constitution, people with a “mental illness or weakness of mind are excluded from the right to vote”. This includes people “who, due to a lasting incapacity for discernment, are protected by a curatorship of general scope or by a mandate due to incapacity”.

Such a curatorship does not necessarily mean an inability to forge a political opinion, argued Delphine Klopfenstein Broggini (Vert-Ees/GE) for the Commission. The Minister of Justice Beat Jans also supported the text, welcoming “political and legal progress” compared to the inclusion of the persons concerned.

The UDC and some elected PLRs were against. In the vote, the motion was approved by 109 votes to 68. The Council of States must still decide.