3) Providing Voting Assistance for the Persons with Developmental Disabilities and Suffrage A) Deletion of Voting Assistance Guidelines for the Persons with Development Disabilities and Controversy In Apr. 2020, the National Election Commission (NEC) revised the guidelines related to voting assistance for the persons with developmental disabilities in the voting management manual. In the 2016 National Assembly election and the 2018 national and local elections, a person with developmental disabilities could receive voting support from two persons nominated by a family member or him/herself pursuant to the pre-revision voting management manual, which prescribed that “blind people who cannot read Braille and cannot vote alone and those with physical disabilities (including intellectual/autistic disabilities) who cannot vote alone” may obtain voting assistance. However, after the NEC’s voting management manual was amended to stipulate the persons eligible to obtain voting assistance as “a person who cannot cast a ballot by himself,”191) a problem was raised that the persons with developmental disabilities who did not know how to write or who had difficulty performing the voting process by themselves were unable to exercise their right to vote. They tried to obtain voting assistance from their parents, but there were cases in which the election officials and were refused to vote, saying that the persons with developmental disabilities are a type of disability that cannot receive voting assistance, so they cannot enter the voting booth together with their families. In response, the NHRCK made a recommendation to the head of the NEC in Mar. 2021 to “prepare a plan to provide legitimate accommodations to guarantee the right to vote for the persons with developmental disabilities and to provide relevant training to all election officials.”192) Moreover, in Nov. 2021, before the 20th presidential election, human rights groups for the disabled applied to the court for interim measures to provide voting support for the persons with developmental disabilities, and in Feb. 2022, the Seoul Central District Court decided to include “the persons with developmental disabilities (intellectual and autistic disabilities)” 191) The National Election Commission has expressed its opinion that the revision of the manual is consistent with the interpretation of Article 157(6) of the Public Official Election Act. 192) NHRCK, Decided on Mar. 26, 2021, 20JinJeong0257300 79