Head of Paros NGO Suren Ohanyan and chairman of Harmony NGO Albert Abgaryan spoke on April 10 at a discussion on disabled people’s rights to participate in elections in Yerevan.
They said the parties and the parliament should have involved more disabled people thus providing them better opportunity to voice their problems.
Ohanyan said he has been dealing with the issue of disabled people's participation in elections for 10 years already, but the problem is still there.
“In general, we are not ready for elections. 87% of polling stations were inaccessible [for people with special needs] in 2003; a 2% increase was recorded in 2007-2008 due to some grant programs,” he stated.
Armenia needs some 40 years to make its polling stations available for everyone. Currently there are only 82 of them fully equipped to accommodate the disabled.
Meanwhile, there are 164 368 disabled voters in Armenia, NGO chairman said.
