INEC in view of the above, must by all reasonable means strengthen the resolve, commitment and will of the PWDs to make their unflinching decision to participate very actively in today's Gubernatorial and States Assembly elections, a reality.
INEC as a matter of fact and in fulfilment of her promise must ensure that accessibility and independent voting process for the PWDs is achieved in today's gubernatorial and State House of Assembly election in Plateau State.
Already the PWDs in Plateau State have raised their voice in favour of inclusive election processes. To this end they call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Plateau State to unlike what obtained during the Presidential and National Assembly elections make the voting process of the Gubernatorial and State Assembly election in Plateau state inclusive, by ensuring that the acquired assistive voting materials are released as promised by the electoral body. This in effect will increase independence voting process for the PWDs, add to the credibility of the election and as a matter of fact speak volume of willingness by INEC to respect the right of the PWDs as provided in the Discrimination of Persons With Disabilities (Prohibition) Act and the 2022 lectoral law.
The PWDs in Jos, the Plateau State capital drew the attention of INEC and the voting public to the fact that there were no assistive voting materials during the Presidential and National Assembly elections that took place in February 25th, 2023.
While lending their voice to the call for improved voting arrangement for the PWDs noted in particular that the INEC in a bid to assure the PWDs that the electoral body is working in tandem with the international best practices assured members of the public of accessibility and independent voting processes for the PWDs.
With regard to the above developments INEC is here reminded of their promise to provide 8117 Braille ballot guides at 5957 polling Units for the benefit of the visually impaired, and 21, 165 magnifying glasses at 16, 071 Polling Units to promote accessibility and independent voting process for those with Albinism, as well as provide 6167 Pictorial Election instruction posters for the hearing impaired.
This statistics above is the provision of INEC for the 2023 General Election covering the 36 states of Nigeria, and the federal capital territory, Abuja.
The PWDs in Plateau State while observing the need for the assistive voting materials to be provided, wondered why they did not see any of the materials apart from the pictorial Election instructive posters, during the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Plateau State. They equally frowned at the inability of the electoral body to engage the services of Sign language interpreters at almost all the Polling Units, and equally the collation centers. They also observed that in situations where sign language interpreters were present at some centers, the INEC Team did not comply with the rule and therefore did not recognize or cooperate with them to assist the vulnerable group.
There were very strong indications that priority was given to the persons with disabilities in most of the Polling Units, however, there were noticeable acts of low performance, as there were issues of lack of diligence in reasonable number of centers.
Another area where there was flaws was in the placement of the Polling Boots, since acts of discrimination were observed. This is because in some polling units the polling boots were placed on elevation, a situation that impede on the right of PWDs in terms of accessibility and independent voting by the persons with physical disability.
While expecting a very remarkable variation from what happened during the Presidential and National Assembly elections in February 25th, INEC is here called to ensure that the right things are done.
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Nnabugwu Chizoba
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