TQM report,
Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) through her #AccessNigeria campaign in a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja released its Final Observation Statement on the Accessibility of Anambra Continuous Voter Registration process for Persons with Disabilities (PWDS).
The Executive Director of Inclusive Friends Association(IFA), Grace Jerry while speaking to the press said that Access Nigeria campaign have made some findings which covers 20 out of the 21 INEC registration centers in Anambra State.
The findings are:
– 70% of routes leading to observed registration centers were accessible.
– The inaccessibility of routes leading to designated areas for election activities like voter registration discourages PWDs from participating in the process
– 80% of registration centers were physically inaccessible to PWDs across the four observation weeks (no provision of ramps where necessary to remove barriers)
– Almost 100% priority registration at all 20 registration centers was observed during the fourth observation. (A slight improvement over the previous three observations)
– INEC Nigeria collected the data of PWDs disaggregated by type of disabilities across all of the INEC voter registration centers
– No provision of sign language interpreters to assist citizens with hearing impairment at all registration centers during the four weeks observation period.
– There was a clear absence of security officials at 14 out of 20 registration centers visited.
The Programme Manager, Access Nigeria, IFA, Mr Moses Oluwaseyi commended INEC for specially targeting PWDs in the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) but called for improved access in the registration centres.
