September 8 election, CPH says almost half voting offices unreachable by people with disabilities

Almost half of voting offices were unreachable or inaccessible to disabled citizens during the September 8 elections, said the Collective for the Promotion of the Rights of People with Disabilities (CPH), during a press conference Tuesday on access facilities devoted to Moroccans with disabilities during the elections.

According to CPH’s observations in 3,178 voting offices across the kingdom, the polls and the tables in voting offices did not take into account people in wheelchairs, as they were too high for them to reach. In addition, 40 percent of polling centers were not equipped with enough lighting in the voting room, which does not consider citizens with poor sight.

The use of special instructions inside the voting offices has developed by 12 percent since the last election, however, many situations of lost blind voters in the polling centers due to the lack of special instructions were observed by CPH’s team on election day.

Karim Cherqaoui, the speaker during the conference, commented on the lack of Braille voting papers in 100 percent of the observed offices. A suggestion the collective presented to authorities a few years ago but is yet to be accredited in the country.

The electoral commissions witnessed the contribution of 1.8 percent of disabled people in the observed offices by the CPH. Meanwhile, the electoral lists included 120 disabled candidates, 13 percent of which were women. However, just 22 political parties out of 33 were keen on the presence of disabled candidates in their electoral lists.

Cherquaoui said that the parties’ electoral projects devoted to disabled people in the working, education and health fields were based on unreal indicators and full of contradictions. He asked instead to include disabled people in the elaboration process of these programs to assure a better understanding of the issues that disabled people face every day.

By the end, Cherquaoui presented the council with suggestions for a better and more inclusive election day in the future.

The main suggestions were about equipping the voting offices with more accessible facilities suitable for different disabilities, providing the electoral commissions with professional training on the disabled Moroccan community’s issues as well as forming a commission specialized in disability issues.

As the conference was ending with journalists asking questions, Cherqaoui noted that the Moroccan law still has some harmful terms regarding the disabled community, such as “crazy and idiot,” terms that should be revised.

The CPH official highlighted that the council’s main demand is providing facility arrangements that will enable disabled Moroccans to practice their voting right without the need for someone’s guardianship, as it limits the citizen’s freedom.

The results that have been presented by the council during the conference today, were collected by 140 observers, 19 of which have impaired mobility while one has an intellectual disability.

The CPH also notes 16 instances in which their observers were prevented from doing their job by the electoral commissions, the reason is still unknown, according to the CPH’s statement.