Comelec assures PWD’s right to vote

Persons with disabilities will have special polling places in the May 2013 midterm elections.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution No. 9485 was promulgated to address the dificulties PWDs experience in casting their ballots.

“Accessibility of polling places to PWD voters on election day is an obligation of the State to ensure equality and full participation of PWDs in social life, development and in particular to the exercise of their right to suffrage,” the resolution states.

A Social Weather Station survey showed that the participation of PWDs decreased from 60 percent in 2007 to 54 percent in 2010.

Comelec Commisioner Rene Sarmiento sent a memorandum to Regional Election Directors and Provincial Election Supervisors last September 28, for the implementation of Comelec Resolution no. 9485 approved on June 29, 2012.

The Comelec office in region 7 and Cebu City received the memo on October 1 containing rules and regulations for voting of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) and establishing accessible polling places for the for the May 13, 2013 elections.

Voting precincts for PWDs should be located in the ground floor and accommodate at most 10 PWD voters at a time.

It should be spacious enough for PWDs to move around, especially those using wheelchairs.

A special voters registration for PWD was scheduled last August.

Assisters are allowed to accompany a PWD inside the polling place. They should be a relative of the PWD voter within the fourth civil degree and belong to the same household.

A Special Board of Election Inspector-PWD will also be available in each polling place to assist PWDs who vote alone.

Assisters are required to “bind himself in writing and under oath to fill the ballot strictly in accordance with the instructions of the voter and not reveal the contents thereof, by affixing his signature in the appropriate space in the Minutes of Voting.”/Correspondent Tweeny M. Malinao