The Central Election Commission will be recommended to ban the opening of polling stations in places that are inaccessible to persons with disabilities as the right to vote of these persons is thus hampered. Vitalie Mester, executive director of the Legal Resources Center for Persons with Disabilities, in a news conference at IPN said the local public authorities are obliged to provide buildings that are accessible to persons with disabilities, but this thing is not always respected.
“The recommendation of civil society is for the Central Election Commission to reassess the public institutions where polling places are established. This should be done between elections, especially because these are often held in the Republic of Moldova, so as to manage to relocate the polling places if necessary,” stated Vitalie Mester. He noted that when adjustments are made, the wishes of all the persons with disabilities should be taken into account, not only of those with locomotor disabilities.
Another recommendation is for the Center for Continuous Electoral Training to train the precinct electoral bureau members how to reasonably adjust the polling places, making known the regulations concerning the accessibility of the electoral process to persons with disabilities.
Vitalie Mester said the practice of using ballots in Braille in an envelope should be promoted so that the persons with visual impairments could vote unassisted. In the last elections, many of the heads of precinct electoral bureaus didn’t know about this envelope, even if it is a condition for ensuring the right to vote of the visually impaired persons. Owing to absence of information, many persons with visual impairments didn’t know the exact place of the candidate for whom they wanted to vote on the ballot and had to ask. But this is a violation of the right to vote directly.
According to findings of the organization, almost half of the 160 polling places monitored during the presidential elections of this year were fully inaccessible to persons with disabilities, while 41% were partially accessible. Sixteen local promoters chosen from among persons with disabilities formulated suggestions for electoral bureau members for adjusting polling places so that they become accessible. Owing to the intervention of promoters, voter turnout among persons with disabilities in the mentioned settlements was 31.6%, up 11.6 percentage points compared with the average during the local elections of 2015.
