Protesters gather in Downtown. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities held a protest in Riad al-Solh Square in Downtown Beirut on Wednesday, demanding an “inclusive voting process that respects diversity,” reported the state-run National News Agency. The protesters criticized the approach taken to polling station accessibility in previous elections, such as carrying people with physical disabilities up staircases, and called for a more dignified and inclusive approach, such as choosing ground floor rooms as polling stations or putting the stations in buildings with elevators.
Here’s what we know:
• The sit-in was preceded by a march, during which the participants chanted slogans such as: “We want to vote on the ground floor,” “Our right to political participation,” “Respect the needs of all disabilities,” “Oh media, where is sign language.”
• In a statement, the union said: “We stand today, in front of the government palaces, first, to remind Prime Minister Najib Mikati that he declared 2013 a promising year for people with disabilities but broke his promise. We stand today to remind successive prime ministers and interior ministers… that they did not perform the minimum of their duties [towards the diasabled who constitute] 15 percent of the Lebanese population. All laws, decrees, decisions and circulars were for them ink on paper, and all their promises were false.”
• The statement added that the interior minister is cooperating “with our demands, but concern will accompany us until the day of the elections, because this responsibility is shared and it is the responsibility of the cabinet as a whole. The scenes of the past should not be repeated.”
• Lack of accessible facilities was also cited as a factor discouraging turnout in the 2018 elections.