Disabled,s demands conducive Environment to fully participate in the general National Elections

 BY SAMUEL NABWIISO

People's with Disabilities in Uganda are calling upon the Electoral Commission (EC)to create conducive Environment that will enable them to effectively participate in the general coming national Elections Exercise.

 Addressing the media in Kampala the Executive Director of the National Union of Disabled Persons Uganda(NUDIPU) Ngirabakunzi Edson said Disabled people's like their counter parts have right to participate in the  Country's politics through voting their leaders at all levels but the Environment on many occasions has not been favoring them thus their rights being disfranchised.

 "NUDIPU there for we call the EC to ensure that all the polling centers are accessible  and within reasonable distance to enable persons with Disabilities fully and effectively participate in the Electoral process “He said.

 Apart from making the centers to be accessible to the disabled persons, NUDIPU also is challenging the Electoral body to commence translating all the Electoral material information into the languages which can be easily understood by the  disabled people's especially the blind ones.

The CEO on Right Stressing point during the recent Press conference 

 "The Blind people's should be supported by the EC by coming up with the information in broil format this will help them to make better decisions making when choosing their leaders of their choice”. He added

 When asked if they have engaged the EC on the above Queries,Ngirabakunzi told the East African Business Week that NUDIPU has had many forums with EC on such issues but the government agency had kept silent on the matter yet the Country has great number of People's with Disabilities and of which great number of them are  eligible voters

 According to Martin Ssennoga the program Manager at NUDIPU,Uganda has a population of about 6 million people with Disabilities of which 4 million of them are eligible voters but Majority have not effectively participated in national voting exercise because of the poor Environment that does not favours them to enjoy their political rights.

 When this Website tried to get comments from the EC Spokesperson Paul Bukenya his Known phone Number was not available to comment on the demands raised by NUDIPU

 Uganda will be conducting a National general Elections where the citizens will be voting the head of state, Parliamentary Legislator's, alongside country wide local government leaders , Special Interest groups representatives according to the Election road map the exercise will commence from 14/January towards the end of march 2021.