Article 47. Right to Vote and Right to Participate in Referend

Article 47 § 4 disenfranchises “Persons declared by court as legally incapable”. This broad formulation is not in line with Recommendation CM/Rec(2011)14 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life8, nor with the interpretative declaration of the Venice Commission’s Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters9, according to which “1. Universal suffrage - 2. No person with a disability can be excluded from the right to vote or to stand for election on the basis of her/his physical and/or mental disability unless the deprivation of the right to vote and to be elected is imposed by an individual decision of a court of law because of proven mental disability.” Article 47 § 4 should therefore refer to the possibility of depriving persons declared as legally incapable only in certain cases (provided by law).