Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) and its allies Access Nigeria Campaign expressed concern that Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) continue to face a lot of barriers in their effort to participate in the elections.
The Executive Director of IFA and the convener of Access Nigeria Campaign, Grace Jerry stated this in Abuja on Wednesday during the 7th Access Nigeria Campaign Stakeholders’ Roundtables on Inclusive Election in Nigeria.
The roundtable meeting was organized in collaboration with National Democratic Institute (NDI) with support from the UKAID, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to draw the attention of the stakeholders to the relevant electoral reforms that would enhance the participation of PWDs as Osun and Ekiti State 2022 off-cycle governorship elections approaches and get the commitment of the stakeholders towards making those elections accessible for persons with disabilities.
Grace Jerry who was represented by Tracy Onabis, a Disability Inclusion Officer at IFA commended INEC, Security agencies and the media in making elections accessible for PWDs and ensuring that PWDs were protected and heard.
She called for more because PWDs continue to face significant barriers in participating in our elections.
She informed that IFA deployed sample-based election observation to observe the November 6, 2021 Anambra governorship election and they discovered that 34% of sampled polling units, persons with disabilities were not given priority to vote in line with INEC guidelines. This discourages PWDs from participating in elections.
“20% of polling units, voters with visual impairments or blindness used the Braille Ballot guide. This number showed that if the Braille ballot guide was available at more polling units, more voters with visual impairments and blindness would have been able to use it”.
“54% of the routes (roads) leading to the areas where sampled polling units were located were inaccessible for PWDs”.
“There were neither ramps nor handrails for us by PWDs outside the sampled polling units at 94% of voting locations”.
“71% of sampled polling units in Anambra State were located in public buildings, predominately in schools 44% and townhalls 25%. Within these public buildings, the sampled polling units were mainly located on corridors 36%, open spaces 34% and townhalls 19%”.
The Program Director, National Democratic Institute (NDI), Ben Aga in his goodwill message said that NDI is proud of the great work that Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) and their allies on the Access Nigeria Campaign are doing and appreciated USAID and FCDO for making it possible for NDI to support this whole activities.
“IFA collected data on the barriers faced by PWDs in the electoral process during their fourth polling unit accessibility audit conducted during the November 6, 2021 governorship election in Anambra State. IFA made far reaching recommendations on how to address the challenges observed during that election and continues to advocate for their implementation” he stated.
Speaking further, he said that the roundtable is one of the many platforms created by IFA to advocate for the implementation of their recommendations.
He also said that 2022 Ekiti and Osun off-cycle governorship elections is around the corner, the implementation of IFA’s recommendations, which includes making polling units more physically accessible for PWDs, will go a long way to make the Ekiti and Osun elections more accessible for PWDs.
He expressed hope that INEC and other stakeholders will keep to their commitments on making the Ekiti and Osun elections more accessible for PWDs.
The Qualitative Magazine reports that Stakeholders roundtable meeting witnessed presentations, panelists discussions by key stakeholders and the participants were INEC REC from the Ekiti and Osun, other INEC officials, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs, the Media, and Organizations of Persons With Disabilities drawn from Ekiti, Osun and FCT.
