Disabled voters demand ease of access

Adianto P. Simamora ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 10/08/2008 10:35 AM  |  National

Voters with disabilities have urged the General Elections Commission (KPU) to provide accessible polling booths to ensure they can cast their votes in next year's elections.

The Elections Center for People with Disabilities (Penca) met with the poll body in Jakarta on Tuesday to submit its proposal for preparations needed to ensure ease of access for voters with disabilities.

"The KPU must provide equal chances for all citizens during the elections and avoid discrimination to ensure that voters with disabilities can participate in the elections," Penca deputy chairman Happy Sebayang said.

In past elections, he said, people with disabilities had found it difficult to reach polling stations. Indonesia will hold legislative elections on April 9, 2009, followed by a presidential election in June.

Happy said many regional elections commissions had failed to prepare polling booths for voters with disabilities.

"Many voters with disabilities were discouraged from going to the polling stations because they were hard to get to," he said.

According to the World Health Organization, 10 percent of the country's 230 million people live with disabilities.

"Of that number, we estimate that 3.6 million people with disabilities are eligible to vote in the elections," Happy said.

In its proposal, Penca recommended that KPU lower the height of the tables on which the voting boxes rest to ensure that people in wheelchairs are able to reach the ballots. The center recommends that the tables be between 75 and 85 centimeters in height, and that the ballot boxes should not be higher than one meter.

There are no regulations in place stipulating the height of the table inside a polling booth.

Penca also called on the KPU to immediately distribute ballots designed for visually impaired voters.

"Visually impaired voters are widespread in the country, but so far the specially designed ballots are only available in the capitals of provinces," Happy said.

Penca member Adi Made Gunawan, who represents visually impaired voters, said the KPU should consider requiring that voters mark their ballots to indicate choice.

"Visually impaired voters will find the new method of marking the ballots difficult. I'm afraid many of them will still punch the ballots," he said.

The KPU decided last month that voters should "mark" rather than "punch" ballots in the upcoming elections. The 2008 elections law stipulates that a ballot is valid if a voter has marked a candidate's name or the number or logo of a political party.

The law says that a vote assigned to a party will determine how many legislative seats that party will win, whereas a vote assigned to a candidate will increase that candidate's chance of filling a seat won by their party.

Penca has also called on the KPU to guarantee that the ballots of visually impaired voters be anonymous regardless of whether they are assisted into the polling station.

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