Association lauds INEC for making people with disabilities to vote

A Pro-democracy group, the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), has lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for creating enabling environment for persons with disabilities (PWDs) to cast their ballots.

The group’s Executive Director, Grace Jerry, who led a team of observers to Ekiti State, said INEC created new polling unit materials, called EC30PWD to facilitate their voting.
She also lauded INEC for its adherence to priority voting, which assisted the PWDs to cast their ballots early during the election.

She expressed appreciation to the Chairman of the Ekiti State Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), the Executive Director of You & I Foundation, and other JONAPWD members for their role in the process.

The group urged INEC to ensure that Form EC40H is deployed in all polling units during the September 22, 2018 governorship election in Osun State. This, it noted would assist the commission to collect data on PWDs on the day of election, so that the disabled persons could be planned for.

IFA also urged INEC to deploy the new Form EC30PWD in the Osun governorship election to assist voters with hearing impairments in casting their ballots with ease.She advocated that magnifying glasses be provided in all the polling units during the election to enable voters with albinism to cast their ballots easily.

The executive director stressed that polling officials should be trained on better ways to manage and interact with voters with disabilities during election.“INEC should pilot the use of Braille or Tactile ballots for the September 22, 2018 governorship election in Osun state,” she added.