The National Human Rights Commission of Korea(Chairperson, Hyun Byung-chul) hosted a briefing session to present result of a survey on current status of rights to vote of persons with mental disabilities residing in mental health facilities and facilities for persons with disabilities.
The survey says that although half of persons with disabilities living in mental health facilities were aware of the election, 81.0% of respondents answered that they could not exercise their rights to vote at the June 4 local elections.
Under the Constitutions and Public Official Election Act, persons with mental disabilities are given with rights to vote unless they are declared incompetent. However, official documents on the election distributed by the National Election Commission to mental health facilities were not handed to people residing there.
The survey, for the first time, analyzed current status of voting of patients in mental health hospitals in depth. The NHRCK conducted the survey for 4 months on persons with mental disabilities in mental health facilities and persons with disabilities in living facilities for them under the Mental Health Act and Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities, respectively.
45.1% of respondent said that they voted in the facilities that they were residing and 44.4% of people who voted at residence said that they want to cast a vote outside the facility in the future. However, according to people working at living facilities for persons with disabilities, the National Election Commission or local governments encouraged residence voting in living facilities for persons with disabilities.
Researchers conducted the survey say that since average hospitalization period of persons with mental disabilities amounts to more than 170 days, election-related matters at mental health facilities have to be strictly managed. They also added that given the high possibility of rigged election, residence voting which is against will of most of persons with disabilities has to be discouraged, and measures that can encourage persons with disabilities to exercise their rights to vote at voting place have to be devised.
During the briefing session, experts debated on improvement measures to help persons with disabilities in mental health facilities or living facilities for persons with disabilities to exercise their rights to vote.
