Report by Zevonia Vieira
In every five years Timor-Leste organized its Presidential Election elect the President of the Republic and subsequently also organized Parliamentary Election to elect Member of Parliament and to establish the government. According to human rights concept every citizens has equal political rights. Citizens voted for political party and its member of parliament to represent people and to rule according to people’s will.
Counted with the recent election, altogether Timor-Leste already conducted six elections. In each and every election the willingness of people with disability to participate in election, event though the National Election Commission has’nt have the properly data about the persenta
Regarding to the Ra’es Hadomi Timor Oan (RHTO) observation iha parliamentary election 2023, took place in 13 municipalities, in 102 voting stations. Only 248 people with physical disability vote, hearing disability 43, vision disability 72, communication disability 19, intellectual disability 16, psychosocial disability 19. All of them were interviewed about conditions that they faced on the voting day. Based on the RHTO observation there are lots thing need to improved to make the election more inclusive.
They know that participates in an election is their constitutional rights as citizens. They want to participate to vote, observe, to become a candidate and decide on what they think best for their country’s development and where the direction the country is heading.
People with disability aware that voting is rights that guaranteed by the Republic Democratic of Timor-Leste (RDTL)’ Constitution but not everyone can easily participate in the election. The government already making good efforts to minimize barriers to allow people with disability to participate in the election but challenges continue to exist and they hamper participation of people with disability in every election. With all the existing challenges they did not stop people with disability to exercise their political rights.
Timor-Leste’s citizens with disability already participated in the first democratic election in 2002, and continue to participate in the subsequent election, but the number is not increase much. By 2012, for the first time people with disability registered themselves to become election observer. In the recent parliamentary election is a bit different because people with disability are motivated themselves to involve with political parties with the intention to bring their cause to the political domain.
Gabriel Oliveira de Araujo, is from the Ainaro Municipality, he has physical disability but motivated to involve in a political party called Os Verde or The Green, with the thinking that they can contribute ideas and present their political strategy regarding the rights of people with disability.
Early 2023, Gabriel starts his involvement as one Os Verdes political leader. Hel talks to his disabled community about the rights of people with disability. He actually had shown his interest in politics since 2019, the time when Os Verdes established. This new political party provides platform to Gabriel and his community to initiate the discussion about political issues that affect their community.
“Only in this year, 2023 we citizens with disability are going up to political stage. As a Timorese citizen, we have the rights to vote, and we, with our community supporting the rights to vote. In 2019, Os Verdes saw me and said to me “you may have physical disability but not disable mind”. Os Verdes listened to our ideas, they called 5 of us to join the party and discussed issues related to development, later the President of Os Verdes also invited us to join the leaderships of the party”, Gabriel explained with proud.
Later on Gabriel, together with his friends start work with Os Verdes, organize political meetings and soon his name listed as one of the party’s candidate to become a member of parliament. At that time he was fully convinced that Os Verdes would pass the threshold barrier and Gabriel will represent his party and his community in the National Parliament.
The trust given by the Os Verdes’ President motivated Gabriel to work harder for his political party. He inspired his friends that living in similar circumstances and together they fight for their rights.
“I am number 8th on the list of Os Verdes as a candidate for members of Parliament. One of my friends with vision impairment listed as number 1 on the list. This really motivates us. And when Os Verdes’s list of candidates brought to the Supreme Court we know that our name is on it. The list is not just a false promised, its real. After election we received the result and our party was not passed the election threshold but we want to say that we are satisfied even losing the election”, said Gabriel.
For Gabriel the biggest barrier is other people are not giving people with disability opportunity to take decision at the political level. And he wanted to show other political leaders who were just talked too much during the campaign but not delivered what they promised. According to him that was situation that called his involvement to make change. He wants to uphold the rights of people with disability a thend to achieve an inclusive development.
As a political leader from Ainaro Municipality he observed that state budget which approved annually is not allocated for public needs let alone the needs for people with disability. The government called for poverty eradication within people with disability but this never happens. Majority of people with disability living in very poor conditions, there is no significant progress made by the government. People with disability are hardly feeling development project that going on in the grassroots and also at national level. Even he has a wheel chair but he cannot access public facilities because they are not accessible. This is the situation that called my attention to engaged with political party and to take action.
Gabriel also observed that many voting stations are not accessible. He participated in election several times and there is no significant change takes place in regards to accessibility issues.
“I have voted for this election more than one time, there is no change. People come to lift our wheelchair and pushed us inside to vote. Our vote has the same value like others, so there is really a need to provide accessibility in the voting centers. This issue will continue to become priority in our advocacy”, said Gabriel.
Now that Gabriel is not becoming members of parliament anymore, but that would not lessen his will to continue advocate for the rights of people with disability through other political party that have seats in the parliament and also through the government.
Gabriel has his own challenges but also highly motivated person the same goes to Beatriz Sarmento but her own challenge is to do more with to access to voting station and to vote. Beatriz Sarmento, with the nickname Beti, born in Dili, 19 of March 1999, born with vision impairment. Beti would need to climb passed by a hill to exercise her rights. She knows she has challenging situation but she is willing to vote for the party that she preferred.
According to Beti this election allows electorate to exercise their rights, but not all voting stations are accessible, particularly for us with vision impairment. She cast her vote in Darelau, in Dare, and in that voting station she found it insecure because she would need to walk up the hills with the support of her father.
“The Government does not prioritize voting stations that could facilitate people with disability to vote. Voting cabin is not accessible and even the toilet. The road from the main street to the voting stations is not secure to us. There is no line for us to follow, we have to step up through stairs and it is so difficult for us. The voting cabin is not so friendly with people with disability”, Beti expresses her concerns.
When Beti walked up the hill she would need the help of her father, the same thing happen when she need to cross the road. For Beti the challenge is not just that, because she also still can not vote by her self because the voting paper is not with braille.
“When I walked to the voting station I need to climb and I have to step through stairs to arrived at the voting station. This is really difficult for me and there is no held ramp to hold on to, so that I can walk by myself. I also cannot go into the voting cabin by myself, my father has to give me companion. I know my family always follow what I want to vote for but still my vote is not a secret and not secure. This is continuous to be my challenge but still I am happy to participate in the election”, say Beti with a mix feeling.
She wanted to ask the government to conduct inclusive election in the the next 5 years. There should be accessibility measures for people with disability, particularly braille voting paper for vision impairment citizens.
Each person lives with particular type of disability and they continue to face challenge to participate in election. Bruno Soares Saldanha, a young man living with physical disability is willing to vote for a political party of his preference despite challenges they are facing. He said that even the government is not paying much attention to our concerns but I still need to vote to change the situation. Bruno votes in the nearby voting station and there is ramp available for him to step through. He also observed that for the other type of disability still challenging to participate in the election.
“According to my observation in some places they already have ramps for people with disability like me. Government think that just build the ramps is enough, it is not, there are other people with different type of disability and they could not vote. I saw one of my fried with a vision-impaired disability could not vote by himself ”, Bruno raised his concern.
President of National Election Commission, Jose Agostinho da Costa Belo, SIP.,SH.,MM recognized all the failure and admitted that the recent parliamentary election is not inclusive, and there are things need to improve in the future.
“Yes we recognized that this parliamentary election is not inclusive, because we were not able to respond to the needs of the people with disability. The President vetoed the revised election law and as the consequence we do not have braille, therefore our vision-impaired citizens could not vote independently. Also many voting cabinet are not accessible, and many voting stations have no ramps”, Jose Belo said and recognized the drawbacks.
But President Jose Belo hope in the upcomig Suco/village election they can responded to the needs of people with disability because election is for everybody to participate and it has to be inclusive.
Based on the data from RHTO (Ra’es Hadomi Timor Oan), a people with disability organization, in the recent Parliamentary Election, only 6% voting stations are accessible, only 7% of voting cabinet is accessible, in general only 8% facilities are accessible for people with disability.
“Government needs to do more to ensure that accessibility in in place so that everybody can exercise their constitutional rights. We will continue to say that our election is not inclusive enough. From the percentage of participation that we have now it is too low, if it increase to 15% then we can say that the accesibility is improve”, Joaozito explained.
The small change took place because RHTO is doing advocacy on the accessibility issue, but the government need to do more. Joaozito also saying that the government need to think that the concerns raised by people with disability is human rights concerns and it is not just about election and political campaign. People with disability continue to demand for great participation and accessibility, including voting secretly and also matrix or braille voting paper for people with vision impairment.
“I also observed that people with disability are starting to show their capacity by involving in various political parties. Some even convinced party leaders to get their name in the candidate list but I also suggested to them to start building accessibility in their political party. For example by having political party office that is friendly with people with disability because all political parties need to think that issues of people with disability is about human rights not just for the sake of political campaign”, said Joaozito.
International election observers also reported about accessibility issue. The Observer Mission from Portuguese Speaking Countries (ROJAE-CPLP) noted that people with disability still facing difficulty to vote in the parliamentary election.
The number of voters participating in the 2023 election was 705,693 (79.28%), men were 362,415 (51.36%), women were 343,278 (48.64%) and those who did not take part in the election were 184,452 (20.72%)
