Jakarta, Kartunet.com – As the nation's capital, DKI Jakarta should ideally serve as a model for other regions, including in the organization of regional elections (Pilkada). However, the recent DKI Jakarta Regional Election still revealed several shortcomings, particularly regarding access for persons with disabilities.
As reported by Mochammad Afifuddin, Coordinator of the Advocacy Team for the General Election Network for Disability Access (AGENDA), the KPU is deemed unprepared to accommodate the needs and accessibility for voters with disabilities. Various requirements for them to exercise their voting rights, such as assistive devices and accessible polling station locations, were still not found in several areas.
“The issue we advocate for primarily highlights ease of access for all voters at every polling station, especially for persons with disabilities. For instance, ballot box height should not be too high, assistive devices prepared by the KPU are not available at all polling stations, and there is no signature for accompanying persons," said Afifuddin at the Jakarta Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) Office (18/7).
In line with AGENDA's report, Mahmud Fasa, an observer from the Center for Accessible Elections for Persons with Disabilities (PPUA Penca), stated that several polling stations in the DKI Jakarta Regional Election were not accessible for persons with disabilities. These polling stations included TPS 039 at the Ministry of Home Affairs complex in Pondok Labu, TPS 023 Haji Mandor Cilandak, and TPS 058 Cilandak Barat.
The monitoring conducted by PPUA Penca in collaboration with the Voter Education Network for the People covered 100 polling stations across five regions of DKI Jakarta, excluding the Thousand Islands. The activity aimed to evaluate the accessibility aspects of the DKI Jakarta Regional Election and provide input for improving the political rights of persons with disabilities in the future.
Common issues observed included polling station locations that lacked access for wheelchair users. Paths were often uneven or had stairs. Other problems included voting table heights not being 100 cm, tables lacking space underneath for wheelchair users, the absence of Braille templates for visually impaired voters, and accompanying persons not signing form C5.
From AGENDA's data across 92 polling stations in Jakarta, 167 persons with disabilities were observed exercising their voting rights in the first round of the 2012 DKI Jakarta Regional Election. This included 60 visually impaired individuals, 65 physically disabled, 32 hearing impaired, nine intellectually disabled, and one with multiple disabilities. Only 75% of polling stations provided assistive devices for the visually impaired. These were not found in the remaining stations, such as TPS 20 Koja, North Jakarta; TPS 23 Cilandak, South Jakarta; and TPS 11 Kramatjati, East Jakarta.
Furthermore, 35% of polling stations did not provide voting booth tables with empty space underneath to facilitate wheelchair users. Only 46% of polling stations had ideal table and ballot box heights. It was also found that 18% of polling stations allegedly did not guarantee confidentiality for voters with disabilities.
These various provisions are actually already stipulated in General Election Commission Regulation No. 35 of 2008, which governs the technical aspects of voting. The existing regulations are quite ideal; only their implementation still requires emphasis. DPM