TQM report
The Albino Foundation (TAF) organized a virtual meeting for the validation of persons with disabilities inclusive electoral bill with office of the Deputy Senate President.
The Memorandum on the ongoing Electoral Amendment Act before the National Assembly is being championed by The Albino Foundation, the disability community and office of the Deputy Senate President with support from European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) and European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS. The import of the memorandum is to ensure that the present Electoral Amendment Act is inclusive of persons with disabilities’ participation in the political and electoral processes in Nigeria.
The Founder and CEO of TAF, Jake Epelle in his opening remark thanked specially all the members of the drafting committee for their commitment and sacrifices. He urged leaders of disability community present at the meeting to make their valuable contributions to the document as it is a good opportunity to ensure disability inclusion in the electoral act.
Otive Igbuzor from the office of the Deputy Senator President reminded the leaders of disability community that the work has just started because if the memorandum goes to the lawmakers, the group will continue to engage to ensure that these provisions would be adopted by the lawmakers. He promised to continue to provide valuable information to the group and also continue to play major role in the advocacy to ensure disability inclusion in electoral act. Â
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The Chairman of the Committee, Prof. Sam Amadi read out the contents of the PWDs memorandum and leaders of disability community pointed out some mistakes and suggestions for amendments.
The committee considered core principle to guide the proposal for the amendment, they are: Inclusiveness, Enforceability, Cost-efficient, Sustainability and Omnibus Provision.
The committee recommended amendments section by section and some of the recommendations, from the omnibus provisions, we have, Ensuring that voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use; Protecting the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums without intimidation and undue difficulty by providing appropriate technologies; Guaranteeing the free expression of the will of persons with disabilities as electors and to this end, allowing assistance in voting by a person of their own choice; and Encouraging political parties to ensure that venues, process, and methodology for nominating and selecting candidates for elective positions must be accessible to persons with disabilities.
The Commission SHALL take reasonable steps to ensure that voters with disabilities are assisted at the polling place by the provision of suitable means of communication, such as Braille ballot guides, Tactile voting system, magnifying glasses, Election Day written instructions, Large embossed print or electronic devices or sign language interpretation, or off-site voting in appropriate cases, All registered voters with disabilities shall enjoy priority voting and many other recommendations( TQM will share the full amended copy with you when it is released by the committee).
Other relevant recommendations are introduction of type of disability in the National Register for Voters and introduction of electronic means of voting which will enhance the participation of PWDs in the electoral process but an expert advised that electronic voting would require the amendments of the constitution, advising that PWDs make that case when the amendment of the constitution comes up.
The document was followed line by line for inputs, grammatical corrections and others.
The meeting witnessed the participation of disability rights advocates such as Hamza Fassi-Fihri(ECES representative), Ene Ede( JONAPWD BOT member), Danlami Basharu ( Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), Grace Jerry (ED, IFA), Wilson Manji( ECES) moderator of the meeting, Theophilus Odaudu( Coordinator, DRF), Daniel Onwe (President ALDIN), Barrister Okey Kanu, Chris Agbo(ED, The Qualitative Magazine TQM), Damian Ivom(TAF), Patience Ogolo(AWWDI), Augustine Onyeachonam( JONAPWD Enugu), Abdullahi Jurgunu (Disability Leader PDP), Barrister Catherine Edeh(VDI), Laolu Olawumi and many others.
TQM learnt that after the committee finished effecting the corrections on the document, it would be transmitted to the office of the Deputy Senate President who is handling workings on the process of electoral act amendments.
