written by Zita Menezes (Citizen Journalist)
Every five years all the Timorese citizens exercise their electoral rights to elect their leaders to rule the country. All the citizens , including people with disabilities are expected to take part in the so-called democracy feast. However, the people with disabilities have not been treated fairly like others. Therefore, the people with disabilities do not feel secure and protected when they go to polling centers to vote. It all happens because the Government has not yet created polling centers, which are friendly and accessible to them on election day.
A 24-year old Physical Disabled, Rosalia Pereira from the sub village of Sahan, the village of Wenunuk, the Administrative Post of Metinaro, the Municipality of Dili, who is currently working for the Association of Timor-Leste People with Disabilities (ADTL) said during the election period many physical disabled people and many blind citizens experienced great difficulties.
“At the moment where people are going to cast their votes, the people with disabilities face huge barriers. The people with disabilities are vulnerable within the society due to unfair treatment and abandonment. Such situation has been a great challenge to the people with disabilities in elections. No proper accessibilities for the people with disabilities at polling centers. No proper equipment that helps facilitate the people with disabilities and blind citizens to vote. Sometimes we have to call for others to help facilitate us to vote. The blind citizens want to vote for leaders who according to them are eligible, but it is hard for them to vote and that is a huge problem that the blind citizens experience in the elections,” a blind citizen, Rosalia said at her offices ADTL, Caicoli, 02/08.
Rosalia calls on the related State bodies, namely CNE no STAE to set up proper accessible facilities at polling centers in a way that can help facilitate them to vote in the elections safely. She also urged those State bodies to provide gesture language training for polling staff working at polling centers. Rosalia also insisted STAE to set up braille letters at polling centers to help facilitate the blind citizens to vote and also help facilitate the intellectual disabled and hearing loss people to exercise their rights properly.
“The organization of people with disabilities are providing advocacies for relevant parties to respond to the difficulties that the people with disabilities face. Creating spaces that can be accessible to the people with disabilities every five years. It is good to help facilitate the people with disabilities to move around properly at polling centers. And also places proper communication means at polling centers in a way that can help facilitate the hearing loss people to communicate. If it is possible CNE can provide a braille training course in order to help facilitate the blind citizens. If the blind citizens are not able to read braille letters, they will not be able to cast their votes properly,” Rosalia said.
Meanwhile, Director-General of STAE, Acilino Manuel Branco, said so far STAE had made balanced and fair services for all the Timorese citizens, saying it did not treat the people differently, which included the people with disabilities and no specific treatment were provided for the people with disabilities, but there was only general knowledge for them through civic education on how to vote, however there would be no proper accessible spaces for the people with disabilities because the election was only a temporary event.
“The electoral process is inclusion, equal opportunities for all, either men or women. Any type of electorate. We do not be based on classification of conditions or any other aspects for comparison among the electorates. But it is more about how to ensure the participation of the country’s citizens to exercise their rights in the elections. We put efforts to guarantee all the citizens’ participation and they should use their own consciences when going to vote. CNE and STAE always promote civic education, electoral education in the national territory to sensitize all the Timorese citizens in order to take part in the election as they have a right to vote to determine the future of the country,” Director Acelino said.
Mr. Acelino explained that CNE and STAE had begun building cooperation with the relevant entities, namely RHTO, ADTL, UNDP to give the people with disabilities with knowledge in a way that they could be able to exercise their rights without having assistance from other people and decide themselves to vote based on their own consciences.
He affirmed that, they did not have yet fix database about the total number of the people with disabilities in Timor-Leste based on the type of the people with disabilities in the municipalities, administrative posts and villages, saying STAE would see how it could resolve the public’s concerns over the inclusive elections and would put efforts to help facilitate the people with disabilities to vote without any assistance from other people in the future.
Although, there have been no proper accessible spaces for the people with disabilities, but they will put efforts together with civil society organizations and all parties to provide advocacies, so that the Government can create proper conditions and accessible spaces for the people with disabilities, so that they can exercise their votes because the country’s success counts on the people with disabilities’ participation in all sectors,” he says.
On the other hands, Director of ADTL, Cezario da Silva, observed that so far the majority of the people with disabilities hake taken part in the elections, but there had been no proper accessible spaces for provided by the Government, saying it was considered to be discrimination against the people with disabilities.
“Many polling centers are not accessible to the people with disabilities and elderly taking part in the elections. Apart from this, communication has also been a huge barrier for the blind citizens to vote secretly because there are no facilities to help facilitate them to vote. Improper accessibilities for the people with disabilities at polling centers are also considered to be a discrimination. Perhaps, it is the community’s perceptions about the participation of the people with disabilities. Such stigmatization always happens to the people with disabilities. But, there have been changes to the mindset of the people about the people with disabilities as what happened previously. Direct discrimination still happens because the Government has not yet improved conditions for the people with disabilities to exercise their rights,’” Director of ADTL said.
