Disabilities in the Election
Chairperson of the General Elections Supervisory Agency, Rahmat Bagja, stated that the upcoming 2024 election does not rule out the possibility that there will be people with disabilities in the election organizers. Therefore, the Chairperson of the General Elections Supervisory Agency conveyed that it was the duty of the General Elections Supervisory Agency to ensure good infrastructure for persons with disabilities.
"I think that with the current situation, we can help create an environment where friends with disabilities can carry out their duties and functions as election organizers," explained the Head of the General Elections Supervisory Agency in an online Diponegoro University Public Lecture.
Bagja is aware of the many obstacles and limitations for persons with disabilities to become election organizers. However, he stated that the General Elections Supervisory Agency would prepare a safe and comfortable environment for people with disabilities.
"There is a blind friend, Deaf friends, each with a disability, the treatment will be different. We are currently preparing this because some of the environment is ready to accept disability organizers, some of which we are currently developing," explained the master graduate of Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
Still related to persons with disabilities, for him, disability-friendly elections are a necessity. Therefore, Bagja also asked for a lot of support from various stakeholders to create a disability-friendly election environment.
"The task of the General Elections Supervisory Board is to ensure that persons with disabilities can cast their votes during elections," he concluded.
For information, the legal protection of voting rights for persons with disabilities has been confirmed in Article 27 Paragraph (1), Article 28D Paragraph (3), and Article 28E Paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.
Likewise with the provisions of Article 43 Paragraph (1) Law Number 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights, Law Number 8 of 2016 concerning Persons with Disabilities, and technical provisions regulated in Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections.
Until now, there are still many obstacles faced by persons with disabilities in terms of political participation which causes them to be forced to ask for help from others. Persons with disabilities need different facilities and infrastructure as well as communication processes according to the obstacles that occur.
One form of fulfillment of political rights for persons with disabilities is to obtain non-physical accessibility in the form of election education, delivery of information related to elections such as the provisions of the legislation regarding the implementation of elections, introduction of vision and content as well as programs offered by election contestants.
Other information from Indonesia, From the point of view of the General Elections Supervisory Agency's supervision, voters with disabilities often experience limitations in accessing election information, limited knowledge in accessing the names of election participants.
Then voters with disabilities also do not get a number of technical election instruments that can reach voters with disabilities, as well as inaccurate data collection so that many disabled voters are not included in the permanent voter list.
Persons with disabilities are part of Indonesian citizens who have the right to be actively involved in political life. Voters with disabilities are an important part in measuring the success or failure of the election.
