Despite the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) tall claims of making all-out efforts to make elections hassle-free and facilitate voters, the ECP has no specific data of voters with disabilities due to which they face numerous challenges on polling day.
Active participation in the political process and the right to vote are prerequisites for any functioning democracy and persons with disabilities (PWDs) are equally entitled to be facilitated in casting their vote. The only way to have their voices heard in poll results is for them to be provided as much ease of voting as everyone else.
In this regard, a seminar ‘Inclusions of Persons with Disabilities’ was held here on Friday at the initiative of the ECP’s Gender and Disability Electoral Working Group aimed at promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the electoral processes.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza said that elections can only be fair and inclusive when every citizen of Pakistan including PWDs is able play his or her role.
Referring to the equality of all citizens under Article 25 of the constitution of Pakistan, he said that concerted efforts are being made by all stakeholders including the ECP, civil society organisations, the media and political parties in this regard.
ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh said that the ECP is striving to create an inclusive environment for marginalised groups in order to have more representation and participation in the electoral process.
He said that the ECP is planning to have all polling stations accessible in the next general elections. DFID Head Joanna Reid said that participation in the electoral and political processes is crucial for persons with disabilities to have a voice in decision-making processes. “We must continue to work together to ensure that all persons with disabilities who are of voting age are registered as voters and have access to voting,” she added.
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) Head Mudassir Rizvi told Pakistan Today that the seminar held by the ECP was a positive initiative, but that the commission could only provide the proper facilities to people with disabilities; it is the political parties which have to bring them to the polling stations.
He said that political parties should offer incentives to PWDs in their elections manifestos which are unfortunately missing in their programs.
To a question, he said that ECP should gather the exact data of the PWDs’ who are registered voters in each polling station across the country so that arrangements could be made for them accordingly on polling day.
He said that PWDs have the same right to vote as everybody else; hence they should be facilitated in the process of voter registrations as well as on polling day.
In Pakistan, the figure of 3,286,630 disabled persons in a total population of 132,352,000 was first arrived at through the 1998 census, indicating 2.4% disability rate in Pakistan. This figure was hotly contested by civil society and NGOs working for the disabled.
According to Rizvi, the situation is alarming and the figure might actually be 12% if a fair and independent survey was conducted.
According to World Bank and the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, at least 10 percent of the country’s population are PWDs. Out of the roughly 18 million disabled persons in the country, over 5 million live in urban areas, while almost 13 million live in rural areas.
A senior official in the ECP said that PWDs have to face numerous challenges to take part in the electoral process due to which special training is being imparted to officials to facilitate them on polling day.
He said that the commission will make all-out efforts to facilitate PWDs by setting up polling stations which they can easily access, besides providing them wheelchairs and helpers.
However, he said that they would have to make sure to provide them with a trustworthy person so that they could not be cheated out of their vote and made to vote against their choice.
When asked about the exact figure of registered PWDs’ voters, he replied in the negative and remarked that the commission has no such record of PWDs voters.
The official said that the commission could not maintain a separate data of PWDs because no discrimination has been made while registering voters besides the unclear definition of PWDs.