To prevent the continued humiliation of disabled voters by carrying them on stairs in polling stations and to ensure respect for their human dignity, the Lebanese Union for Persons with Motor Disabilities organized a sit-in in front of the Government Serail in Beirut today, under the title “Towards an Inclusive Voting Process that Respects Diversity”. This is to emphasize its demands to respect the use of ground floor rooms in polling stations as polling stations, ensure the operation of elevators where they exist, and create polling stations in the courtyards of polling stations where there are no rooms on the ground floor.

Activists with disabilities and volunteers gathered in front of the Mohammed al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, before marching to Riad al-Solh Square carrying demanding banners and federal flags, chanting the slogan “From the floor my voice comes out”, expressing the main demand related to the use of ground floor rooms as polling stations.

In front of the Government Serail, Federation President Silvana Al-Laqis delivered a speech:

“The elections on May 15 are only a month and a half away. Will the humiliating scenes of carrying disabled voters on stairs at polling stations be repeated? Does the Council of Ministers feel the extent of the harm caused by disrespecting the humanity of a disabled person, viewing them as a mere electoral vote and subjecting their dignity to humiliation in every general election since the Taif Agreement until today? Is it not time for the Lebanese government to respect human rights?

Today, we stand in front of the Government Serail, firstly to remind Prime Minister Najib Mikati that he declared 2013 as the year in which he promised disabled people their rights and broke his promise. We stand today to remind the successive prime ministers and interior ministers over the past 22 years that they have not fulfilled their minimum duties towards 15 percent of Lebanese citizens. All the laws, decrees, decisions and circulars were ink on paper for them, and all their promises were false.

Today, the Minister of Interior is cooperating with our demands, but the anxiety will accompany us until election day, because this is a shared responsibility of the cabinet as a whole and should not repeat the scenes of the past.

We stand here today to say that we will not retreat from our rights and our voice will remain loud in the demanding squares.

We are only a month and a half away from the elections on May 15. All previous governments used the excuse of lack of time, and today we have lowered our expectations to the minimum, even less than the minimum, and what we are demanding today is applicable and fast. So what are you doing?

We had submitted three proposals aimed at enabling people with disabilities to exercise their electoral rights independently and with dignity, starting with the megacenter, followed by the exceptional registration of disabled voters in equipped centers within their electoral districts, but these two requirements were not realized and are subject to political wrangling. We arrived at the final proposal to use the ground floors of polling stations, use stadiums as pens, and operate elevators where they exist.

The federation had provided the Ministry of Interior with the necessary information, and the result of a study prepared by its engineering unit, an updated version of the comprehensive field survey of polling centers, which concluded that forty percent of the centers have rooms on the ground floors, and that elevators are available in 21 centers and can be used. Elsewhere, pens should be introduced in playgrounds and courtyards. These very simple demands are not what we hope for from the implementation of Law 220/2000 or Decree 2214/2009, but rather the simplest demands to ensure that disabled voters have access to polling stations and complete the voting process with independence and dignity, after the many disappointments that the disability movement in Lebanon has experienced with successive governments over the past 22 years.

Our first message today is to disabled voters. Since 2005, we have been providing models and solutions to preserve our dignity at every electoral station. We conducted the required studies for engineering equipment, provided models for inclusive polling stations for people with mobility, visual, hearing and intellectual disabilities, and extended our hand to successive ministries so that the scenes of humiliation would not be repeated. Today, we stand together to witness even partial progress on this demand, and we will not be silent about any violation of our rights, and you know that we will not be silent and our demanding voice will remain loud.

To the partners in civil society and human rights and demanding organizations, together we constitute a force that transcends everything that separates the Lebanese from each other, so let us carry our demands together to abolish discrimination towards people with disabilities and achieve a step towards a country that respects all its sons and daughters and invests in their energies. A country where we can be citizens that protects our constitutional rights and not be subjects of sects and regions. We have a great responsibility today, so let us live up to this responsibility.

To the Lebanese public: This marginal limit of disability rights facilitates the movement of the elderly, pregnant women and those with temporary disabilities, and don’t forget that most centers are schools and public-use institutions. Access to this right constitutes a sustainable model in the use of these places not only for one-day elections, but for education, public use, and respect for human rights.

The elections on May 15 are only a month and a half away. What we are asking for is simple and clear:

• Easy access to the polling center for voters with disabilities with independence and dignity.
• Polling booths should be on ground floors.
• Operate elevators where they exist.
• Polling booths should be set up in the playgrounds and courtyards of the centers where there are no rooms on the ground floors.

In the days leading up to the election, we will be watching to see what steps the government will take to ensure the dignity and humanity of people with disabilities and the elderly. We demand that our demands be met 20 days before the elections, that is, before polling stations are installed, and that all centers with rooms on the ground floors be converted into polling stations.

Participating in elections is our right and the government should remove any obstacles in front of us so that we can exercise this right with dignity and independence. The scenes of humiliation that we have witnessed over the past years are a crime against disabled voters that we have not accepted and will not accept.”