A delegation from the Lebanese Union for Persons with Motor Disabilities and the Shabiba Association for the Blind met with Minister of Interior and Municipalities Bassam Mawlawi at his office to discuss proposals the union had submitted to ensure that persons with disabilities can vote independently without violating their rights. Mawlawi was receptive to the proposals and what could be implemented over the next two months.

During the meeting with Minister Mawlawi, the delegation included Silvana Al-Laqis (President of the Federation), , President of the Youth Association for the Blind Amer Makarem, Program Manager Hanin Al-Shamali, and from the Engineering Unit, Engineer Ahmed Ezzeddine. Al-Laqis presented the course of action of the My Right Campaign – the national campaign for the realization of political rights for persons with disabilities since 2005 and the provisions of Law 220/2000 related to elections, its previous cooperation with the Ministers of Interior, the issuance of the implementation decree 2214/2009 on facilitating the voting process for persons with disabilities, in addition to the continuous promises of the ministers to implement the decree, and the continuous violations against them during their voting, monitoring these violations and issuing detailed reports in this regard. She then explained the Federation’s proposals for the upcoming elections, chief among them being that persons with disabilities should vote in the same electoral centers approved for persons without disabilities, and that a certain number of (barrier-free) electoral centers should be determined in each electoral district according to the number of pens and voters. They are announced as centers for registering disabled voters who declare their desire to vote in them, along with other non-disabled voters, so that municipalities are tasked with searching for these suitable centers, and they are added to the list of approved centers for parliamentary and municipal elections. Provided that the disabled voter is given the right to pre-register to vote in the barrier-free center closest to his place of birth, i.e. in the same district in which he is supposed to vote. The proposal will be issued in the decree that includes polling stations, and the adoption of a specific pen on the ground floors is mandatory for persons with disabilities to vote.

For his part, Minister Mawlawi expressed his initial response to the proposal, especially regarding the identification of an obstacle-free electoral center in each electoral district, provided that the ministry announces it in advance, so that where there is access to a pen on the ground floor, it is used, and where there is no possibility, the stadium or parking lot is used to create the pen, considering that these are logistical matters that can be applied. The first step is to follow a procedure similar to what was done with expatriates, starting with reviewing the deletion lists, then the ministry announces that every voter who wishes to vote in the equipped center must pre-register according to a mechanism determined by the ministry, and after determining the number of those who wish to do so, the ministry decides the location and number of centers. The minister believed that pre-registration could last for one month (e.g., January). He also responded favorably to the Union’s proposal to train those involved in the electoral process.