{"id":14954,"date":"2023-02-02T11:42:30","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T02:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/?p=14954"},"modified":"2023-02-02T11:42:32","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T02:42:32","slug":"the-countrys-visually-impaired-citizens-need-braille-ballot-papers-on-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/2023\/02\/02\/the-countrys-visually-impaired-citizens-need-braille-ballot-papers-on-election-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The country\u2019s Visually-impaired Citizens need braille ballot papers on election day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reportajen Floriana da Silva<\/strong> (Citizen journalist)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unequal treatment of people with disabilities has been a huge concern of the public, it is because of the perception that people with disabilities are incapable of contributing to the country\u2019s development. The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL) sets out rights and a guarantee of all its citizens to be treated equally no one is treated differently, which includes people with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equal treatment and discrimination against people with disabilities continues to happen, mainly in the election periods because there have been no accessible and inclusive spaces for people with disabilities to cast their votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to citizen journalists, a Visually-impaired Citizen, Loyola da Costa Cruz.said he was concerned about the National Election Commission (CNE) and Technical Secretary for Electoral Administration\u2019s (STAE) preparations for elections as there had been no braille ballot papers provided to help facilitate the country\u2019s visually-impaired citizens to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/strong>\u201cThe huge barrier that we face at polling center when we are going to vote or exercise our rights is that we are not free to vote secretly because there is no braille letters provided for us to vote ourselves, so we have to ask for help from others to indicate ballot papers to us, it is not so good and we are not free to vote secretly,\u201d Mr. Loyola explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding that such a situation happened to visually-impaired citizens in 2022\u2019s presidential election and said they continued to face the same situation because they were not able to vote secretly, calling on the Government and electoral bodies to help provide them with accessible spaces in a way that they could cast their votes freely and secretly like other citizens did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Vitorina Sarmento Savio, maluk ho defisiensia matan. [Foto: Floriana]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, another visually-impaired citizen, Vitorina Sarmento Savio\u00a0also recognized that the Government had not yet prioritized the issue of people with disabilities, especially the country\u2019s visually-impaired citizens who could not see as there were no braille ballot papers and voting booths provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot exercise our rights freely and secretly. Other citizens feel they really exercise their rights freely and secretly. For us we are still depending on those who we believe that can really help us to vote. But we do not believe them %100 that they really want to help us to exercise our rights as we want,\u201d<\/em> Vitorina said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, she urged the Government to pay more attention to the needs of people with disabilities at polling centers by providing them with accessible facilities to vote based on their conscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In regard to this, Director of RHTO (Raes Hadomi Timor Oan), Joaozito dos Santos said people with disabilities were enthusiastic to take part in the elections, however the State had yet to ensure accessibilities at polling centers, saying it had affected participation of people with disabilities in the elections, making visually-impaired citizens not casting their votes freely and independently due to no braille ballot papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe saw there were not enough lights in the voting booths and that complicates people with disabilities to vote in the previous elections. It happened due to CNE and STAE has yet to provide accessible facilities, such as rampa, clean water and comfort rooms at polling centers for people with disabilities,\u201d<\/em> Mr. Joazito said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr, Joazito affirmed this equal treatment had led to so-called discrimination against people with disabilities taking part in the presidential election of 2022, adding that RHTL had recommended to CNE and STAE to be in partnership with the Ministry of Public Work to set up accessible spaces for people with disabilities at polling centers in order to help facilitate them to vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Director-National of CNE for ECPDMI, Jose Soares Fonseca affirmed that the country\u2019s law only set out assistance provided for people with disabilities, mentioning that people with disabilities could get assistance from anyone who they believe could help them vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our report findings, we recommend resolving this matter. We hope that braille ballot papers are provided for the visually-impaired citizens to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the data taken from 2015\u2019s census by the Association of People with Disabilities (ADTL), the total number of people with disabilities is ADTL 14.828.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reportajen Floriana da Silva (Citizen journalist) Unequal treatment of people with disabilities has been a huge concern of the public, it is because of the perception that people with disabilities are incapable of contributing to the country\u2019s development. The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL) sets out rights and a guarantee of all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-notisia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14955,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954\/revisions\/14955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}