The persons with disabilities daily cannot reach such institutions as libraries, cultural centers and schools because the infrastructure there is not adjusted to their needs, said expert Eugeniu Rybka, who took part in the monitoring of polling places to see how the right to vote of persons with disabilities is respected, within a project carried out by the Legal Assistance Center for Persons with Disabilities. The results of the monitoring were presented in a news conference at IPN.
Eugeniu Rybka stated that the persons with disabilities were helped to reach the ballot boxes in inaccessible polling places either by persons accompanying them or by members of the electoral office. The situation is not normal as the polling places were located inside state institutions. These persons need to reach such institutions more often and they cannot be helped by other persons every time. The authorities must unconditionally implement the international standards to ensure the disabled persons’ access to such institutions.
The authorities are urged to study and generalize the good practices as regards the behavior of electoral bodies towards persons with disabilities and to collect statistical data about these persons. Eugeniu Rybka noted that when he asked the heads or deputy heads of electoral offices how many persons with disabilities were to exercise their right to vote at the given polling place, he was told that one or two such persons, but much more people with visual impairments came there, mainly elderly people, and these were not regarded as persons with disabilities by the members of the electoral office.
The expert added that the institutions that housed polling places weren’t adjusted. He personally went to a polling place set up inside a nursery school in Chisinau, where he walked through a poorly lit corridor longer than 50 meters and where there were no signs showing the direction to the polling place. He stumbled over a high threshold. The authorities should work out standards concerning the placement of polling places and probably not all the public institutions should be used in this regard.
Olga Cenusai, program director at the Legal Assistance Center for Persons with Disabilities, said the local public authorities are often willing to create normal conditions for the persons with disabilities, but declare that they simply do not know how and need relevant information.
The monitoring was carried out within the project “Participation of the persons with disabilities in political and public life” that is supported by the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau.
