Political Parties must Make Room for People with Disabilities on their Election Lists

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Experts have discussed the need to change the current legislation in order to ensure the participation of people with disabilities in the electoral process.

According to reports on the official site of the National Assembly of Persons with Disabilities of Ukraine, the Assembly has discussed the reasons for the absence of people with disabilities in the elections. The most common problems are the lack of accessibility to buildings and the improper performance of their duties by commission members. According to experts, both changes in legislation and on-the-ground implementation are needed to solve the problem.

Kyivite Oleg Polozyuk says, “This was my experience visiting a polling station: The building was inaccessible, so I had to ask the police and the other voters for help.”

In addition to participation in voting, a person with a disability has the right to run for office. The Central Election Commission notes that the representatives of the political parties must provide a certain number of seats in their lists for people with disabilities.

“I believe that this is required. If there is a caucus of disable people in the representative bodies of local self-government and in Parliament, I think that the legislative process in this case will be much more effective,” says Andriy Magera, the deputy head of the Central Election Commission.

The draft recommendations presented will be included in the Ukrainian report to the United Nations, which will take place in August this year. The recommendations will also be submitted to the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada.

According to the earlier analytical report “Monitoring the accessibility of persons with disabilities to justice in the context of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” 40% of surveyed people with disabilities in the Chernihiv region report a low level of awareness of the procedure of judicial services.