The right to vote of people with disabilities as a result of the modification of the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime.

Last 07 from December, and after being published in the BOE of the day 05 from December, came into force Organic Law of General Electoral Regime (Loreg), which comes to point out that “Any person may exercise their right to vote, aware, freely and voluntarily, whatever your way of communicating it and with the means of support you require. "

Paraphrasing Jesús Vidal, recently awarded with the Goya for best new actor for his work in the excellent film Campeones, "Prejudices are a great disability". “You don't know what you have done by giving this award to a person like me!! Three words come to mind: inclusion, diversity and visibility ", he continued saying in a speech that has deeply penetrated all who heard him.

A great step has been taken by eliminating the suffrage limitations imposed by the Organic Law 5/1985, from 19 of June, of the General Electoral Regime, in its third section article 1, sections b) y c) had:

«1. They lack the right to vote:

b) Those declared incapable by virtue of a final judicial sentence, provided that it expressly declares the inability to exercise the right to vote.

c) Those admitted to a psychiatric hospital with judicial authorization, during the period of their internment provided that in the authorization the judge expressly declares the incapacity to exercise the right to vote. "

According to the words of the Spanish Committee of representatives of People with Disabilities (Cermi), thus ends "a process of proposal, political incidence and social pressure ", that began years ago by the Spanish social movement for disability and that “has succeeded in suppressing the democratic anomaly what did i suppose more than 100.000 people were deprived in Spain of the right to vote for reasons associated with disability ".

According to the new Law, none Person with Disability may be private in the future of the right to vote. further, those already disabled who have had their right to vote limited or canceled due to their disability “will be fully reintegrated in the same by operation of the law” without having to carry out any kind of management or procedure on your part.

The new Law will allow more than 100.000 people with intellectual disabilities can exercise their right to vote.

Even the Council of Europe has spoken out in the past and warned Spain that it cannot deprive the right to vote for people with disabilities after the European Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe spoke in this regard, when making its conclusions before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of María del Mar Camaño Valle against Spain for having withdrawn this right by a court.

There will be someone who maintains that the right to vote must be limited to certain people, and we will have to remind them that by looking back at the past we will see that the right to vote has been advancing inexorably, but we must not forget that until not long ago women could not vote, or that social or economic class were also taken into account in their day to determine who could exercise the right to vote.

In Spain, with the end of the reign of Elizabeth II, on 1868 Elections to the Cortes were called in which they could participate, for the first time, all Spanish men over 25 years, regardless of your wealth, but it did not last long since the Electoral Law of 1878 reintroduced "male" census suffrage, in such a way that only the part of the population that had certain subjective characteristics voted, with which the formation and wealth of the people came into play again when defining the electorate. The Electoral Law of 1890, reestablished universal male suffrage, that would last, with the peculiarities of Francoism, to the present day.

As for the woman, although their electoral rights were still not recognized, it didn't take long to start enjoying them. At least compared to other countries, Spain can boast of having established the right to vote for women at a relatively early time, with the Republican Constitution of 1931, but it's much later, with the Constitution of 1978 when the door is finally open for Spanish legislation to guarantee the same treatment for women and men. Do not forget that, although now it seems a lie, until 1981 women had to ask their husband for permission to work, collect your salary, do business, open checking accounts in banks, get your passport, driving license, and the minor was equated and could not leave the house without parental consent.

Having reviewed the historical antecedents and today there is the right to vote for all, we must conclude that the definitive step has been taken, overcoming existing prejudices and unprecedented progress has been achieved.

It is an advance for democracy that allows the intellectually disabled to exercise their right to vote, but I have also been asked from some areas the question of whether all the intellectually disabled are capable of discerning "aware, freely and voluntarily " which candidate or political party should be the recipient of your vote.

Well, the answer cannot be other than affirmative., especially if we look a little to the past and the present, and that some people full of prejudices, or protected by some kind of "moral superiority" they decided who could or could not vote. Surely we all know someone who thinks that some should not vote, for the most unusual and imaginative reasons, some will think that "The bad thing about democracy is that everyone can vote". There is an old philosophical line that already pointed to the limitation of the right to vote, is named epistocracia, and it is a "remedy" already hinted by Plato or John Stuart Mill centuries ago.

Of course no system is perfect, but I prefer a thousand times the right to universal suffrage than someone limiting the voting rights of people with, who knows what interests.

For all this ... to vote as champions.