TQM Report,
Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) on Tuesday in Abuja presented a research on the participation of persons with disabilities in the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR).
It is an activity under Data for Inclusion supported by Voice Nigeria to improve participation of persons with disabilities in elections and politics.
The Executive Director, Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), Grace Jerry in her statement said that through data for inclusion project, IFA were able to collect data of registered voters with disabilities across 13 states and provided this to INEC to plan effectively for this category of voters during elections. This data assisted the Commission to deploy voting materials during the off-season elections last year but on realizing through the data collection that most persons with disabilities are not registered and do not possess voters’ cards to participate in elections, we decided to conduct a research mainly to identify and understand some of the factors responsible for this low participation of persons with disabilities in the CVR process beyond the obvious marginal reasons most of us know about. The research was conducted in Abuja, Adamawa, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Ondo, and Sokoto.
Speaking further, she commended INEC for including in this phase of the continuous voter registration (CVR) a disability clause in the CVR form, that asks prospective voters to indicate whether or not they have any form of disability.
She called on INEC to do the following as the CVR continues, i) Distance is a major factor responsible for low participation. INEC should employ roving/mobile registration across communities with clusters of persons with disabilities to reduce the cost (disability-related) or registration for persons with disabilities. ii)Data of voters with disabilities by cluster should be published to assist organizations of persons with disabilities to plan better initiatives to encourage more participation of the PWD community in the CVR exercise. iii) Registration officers must continually train to ensure they attend to persons with disabilities with utmost dignity as they exercise their franchise and iv) As INEC increases the number of registration centres nationally, the physical accessibility of the locations should be prioritized in the selection of such locations.
She advised NOA to do more in play in sensitizing citizens on civic and voter education which specific messages that would reach persons with disabilities and introduce Disability and persons with disabilities in the sensitization of the National Youth Service Corp to enable Corp members to get familiar with disabilities before they are recruited as ad-hoc staff in the pre or election phase.
She went further to call on PWDs leaders to crease their voices in order to encourage more persons with disabilities to register and be eligible to participate in elections. Beyond voting, they should encourage more PWDs to prepare to run for office in local, state, and national elections, especially 2023, and National Commission of Persons with Disabilities should play the big role of working and influencing the national assembly especially the house committee on liability matters to provide a budget to enable the commission to conduct massive civic education targeting persons with disabilities. The commission should work with its various line ministries to ensure the physical accessibilities of locations used as polling units and registration centres in the later phase of the CVR.
“Media should endeavor to support OPDs by providing voter education messages in accessible formats to reach various clusters of disabilities, and at a reduced cost” she added.
