B

oy Tonggor Siahaan has cast his vote in every election since he was in high school. The 46-year-old has not missed a single legislative, presidential or regional election.

For him, keeping up with the latest political news has made him a well-informed voter.

'€œI have never been an absentee voter. I am well-informed because I have always followed the political scene in the country,'€ said Boy, who lives in Jati Asih, Bekasi.

But it is his limbs that stand in the way of exercising his political rights.

'€œMy problem is that if I want to use my hand [to punch a hole in the ballot paper], it is not strong enough,'€ said Boy.

Boy was born with deformities to both of his arms. '€œI was forced to use my feet. I punch a hole by holding the nail with my feet,'€ he said.

Boy, however, considered himself lucky with his still-functioning arms.

'€œWhat about those who don'€™t have limbs at all?'€ he said.

Cases like Boy'€™s were documented in a study conducted by the General Election Network for Disability Access (AGENDA), a consortium of civil society organizations and disabled people'€™s organizations across Southeast Asia.

The study was aimed at improving access for disabled people to meet their political rights.

The study found that in the July 9, 2014 presidential election, 84 percent of 470 polling stations monitored in five provinces were inaccessible for disabled voters.

The study found that only 16 percent of polling stations in Aceh, Jakarta, Central Java, South Kalimantan and South Sulawesi were accessible for people with disabilities.

A polling station is deemed to be accessible only if it meets seven criteria surrounding access pathways, location, entry and exit points from polling station, space to maneuver inside the polling station, voting booth pedestal, ballot box and braille template.

'€œWe observed the election in a very technical way by asking our observers to come early morning [on voting day] and observe disabled people who were registered [to vote],'€ AGENDA coordinator Muhammad Afifudin said.

The study also found that some polling station attendants were not well-prepared to aid disabled voters, with 43 percent of officers not offering any help at all to disabled voters, and only 38 percent actually helping voters with disabilities.

'€œSometimes the attendants also did not ask what kind of disability [that voters had],'€ Afifudin said. '€œSometimes they want to have a disabled person be able to vote but they don'€™t know how.'€

The study also monitored and interviewed 789 people with disabilities, some of whom did not exercise their voting rights.

Also, 290 eligible disabled voters said they did not cast their votes because they were not able to get to a polling station on election day.

Meanwhile, 188 said there was no dedicated polling station for people with disabilities or mobile polling station option.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) is planning to rectify the problem of limited access for disabled people for this year'€™s regional elections, scheduled for Dec. 16 in 204 regions.

Data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) said that there are 24 million people with disabilities in the country, more than the 23,681,471 votes secured by the winner of the 2014 legislative election, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).