The polling places established for the local elections, even if some of these were located inside state institutions, weren’t very accessible for persons with locomotor disabilities. The information about the elections was provided in a vocabulary that was too difficult for persons with mental disabilities, while the size of letters was too small for those with visual impairments. The members of electoral offices were unable to communicate with persons with hearing impairments. The Legal Assistance Center for Persons with Disabilities monitored 70 polling places to see how the right to vote of the persons with disabilities was ensured and presented the monitoring results in a news conference at IPN.
Olga Cenusa, project director at the Center, presented pictures of polling places taken by national observers of the Center. These showed that the infrastructure of the polling places was inappropriate and didn’t allow persons in wheelchairs to reach the ballot boxes. In some of the cases, to be able to reach the polling place, the persons with disabilities had to mount stairs without ramps. In parts, there were ramps, but these could not be used. Ramps were needed not only for wheelchair users, but also for parents who came to vote with babies in carriages, but the se up slopes were impracticable.
Also, the doors were too narrow, in parts of only 70 cm. Ion Balan, national observer in Stefanesti village of Floresti district, said the polling place in this village also didn’t have ramps. Four days before the election day, he went to the mayor and asked him to build ramps. The mayor expressed readiness to build them and asked to be explained how these should be set up correctly. On the election day, the ramps were accessible.
Victor Koroli, expert in development of the report on the observance of the right to vote of persons with disabilities in the local elections of 2015, said that owing to the support provided by other projects, the number of observers was raised from 15 to 49. These oversaw the voting process at 70 polling places. They also tried to collect statistical data about the number of persons with disabilities in the settlement and the type of disability, but didn’t manage to because the local public authorities didn’t possess such information.
Only 15 of the 70 polling places had infrastructure accessible for persons with disabilities. Only eight of them were accessible at the entrance, while nine were accessible inside for such persons. In 39 polling places, there was by a person responsible for helping disabled persons to reach the ballot boxes. Victor Koroli said the situation is bad in practically all the villages, being better only in Chisinau.
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.
