More disabled to vote, says official

By GABRIEL LAHOC
MORE people with disabilities throughout the country will vote in this year’s general election, an election manager said in Lae, Morobe province, yesterday.
Assistant election manager Fredah Jones announced this to over 50 people with disabilities who attended the third regional launch of the people with disabilities common roll update programme at the Morobe special education resource centre.
Jones said people with disabilities would have their own polling booth, have the help of skilled officers and be eligible for postal voting.
The new people with disabilities common roll update programme is facilitated by the Department of Community Development, in partnership with AusAID’s electoral support programme, the electoral commission and the national board for persons with disability.
It is primarily to find people with disabilities eligible to vote and accommodate them in the electoral process.
Jones said disabled people still had a chance to get their names registered on the principal roll, which was different from the preliminary roll.
Enrolment for disabled people at the centre ends on Friday.
The programme’s disability working committee chairman Adrian Winnie said polling accessibility was still a major problem for disabled people in urban centres but worse in rural areas.
Polling infrastructure accessibility disabled people is the next on the list for improvements by the electoral support programme, which is encouraging them to make use of their hidden talents.
Winnie said the realisation that persons with disability were marginalised and had missed out on having a say on how the country was being run was raised in a consultative meeting last year in Port Moresby.
“Perhaps one reason we struggle is that we don’t have a representative in parliament,” Winnie said.
The event was witnessed by Benedict Hippom, president of Morobe disabled agency, Ben Theodore, chairman of PNG paralympics, and staff of Morobe special education resource centre.
The last leg of the regional launches will be in Mt Hagen for the Highlands region.