Lusaka, 21 November, 2023 / 4:37 pm (ACI Africa).
There is need for the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to erect ramps at voter registration centers to enable people living with disability access them, Church leaders in Zambia under the Christian Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG) have said.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa on Monday, November 20, CCGM officials who include representatives of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) and the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) say 53% of the voter registration centers in the Southern African nation have stairs or a step making it difficult for people using wheelchairs to access them.
“CCMG calls on the ECZ to immediately take all necessary measures to ensure that temporal ramps are erected at all centers to enable accessibility for people with disabilities,” CCMG officials say.
They also urge the electoral commission to provide registration data on persons living with disability, including their age, gender, age, and disability-type classifications.
Such information, CCMG officials add, will help ECZ “to effectively plan and implement measures on disability inclusion in the electoral process and also help civil society raise awareness on civic participation targeted at persons with disabilities.”
