The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Bekasi Elections Commission has equipped polling booths with Braille templates to help disabled voters participate in the city's first direct mayoral election this Sunday.
Commission member Ucu Asmara Sandi said the commission distributed the templates to all the city's 2,568 polling stations, which had features making them more wheelchair-accessible.
"We hope more disabled voters can vote that day, either by themselves or with the help of chaperones," Ucu told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The commission predicts some 1.2 million voters will cast ballots, including 10,000 blind people and 20,000 with other disabilities.
Braille templates were used for the first time during the 2004 presidential election and again in recent Jakarta gubernatorial elections.
The head of the Bekasi chapter of the Association for Disabled Indonesians, Suparlaut Adiprasa, said the supporting facilities made his members excited about the election.
"The decision shows us that the commission really wants us to be involved in it (the election). Some other local elections like the city's legislative election and the regency election held last year didn't use the templates."
However, he said he worried there would be inconsistencies on polling day with officials at some booths hindering chaperones from escorting blind voters inside the station.
"If the officials are the ones who escort the blind people, it would destroy the privacy," he said, since the officials were strangers to them.
Thus, Suparlaut hoped the commission would prepare Braille ballots for future elections so Bekasi's blind wouldn't need escorts to assist them in placing the ballot paper properly inside the template.
He said he also regretted that the commission only held two meetings to educate the disabled about the election process -- a familiarization meeting last September attended by 300 disabled people and an election simulation last Saturday attended by 150.
"Due to a limited budget the commission only allowed 150 people to join the simulation. We picked the 150 people from each district so they could pass the information on to friends living in the same area."
He added his organization would deploy volunteers to monitor and report any violations involving disabled voters.
The commission has also provided polling stations at 14 hospitals, five health centers and the Bulak Kapal penitentiary. (tif)
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