‘Tackle marginalisation of people with disabilities in politics’
The Director of Voice Ghana, a non- governmental organisation engaged in advocay, Mr Francis Asong, has observed that citizen participation in local governance and inclusive development must involve every segment of society.
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Mr Asong said it was, therefore, proper that marginalisation of people with disabilities (PWDs) was tackled actively and their needs catered for at all levels of development, including assisting them to contest the district level elections.
Candidates
However, the Electoral Commission has warned that it is against the district level election law for individuals, civil society and political parties to sponsor candidates at the district levels whether vulnerable or not.
Already 14 persons with disabilities (PWDs), eight males and six females, have been assisted by Voice Ghana to contest district assembly elections in the Agortime-Ziope and Adaklu districts in the Volta Region in March.
Three of the candidates, two males and a female, are competing for the position of assembly members and the rest as unit committee members.
The PWD contestants are under the tutelage of Voice-Ghana, a Ho-based disability rights advocacy NGO.
Local governance
The Director of Voice-Ghana, Mr Francis Asong, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) last Sunday that the pushing of PWDs into local governance was under a project funded by STAR-Ghana.
He said there was also a national version of the programme, under which Voice-Ghana, with funding from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), prepared 22 other PWDs from 15 districts across the country to contest the district level elections.
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Mr Asong said eight in this category had filed their nominations to contest as assembly members in their respective electoral areas, while the remaining 14 would contest as unit committee members.
Mr Asong said citizen participation was a cornerstone of local governance and inclusive development, which therefore, must involve every segment of society.
Principle
He said it was the right of individuals to be involved in the planning, implementation and monitoring of development processes of their communities.
Mr Asong said it was, therefore, proper that marginalisation of PWDs was tackled actively and their needs catered for at all levels of development.
He said the programmes were purposeful and intent on contributing to “breaking the spiralling vicious cycle of 'overwhelmed PWD constituents against a rather exclusive society”.
Voice-Ghana, as part of the projects, had taken various constituents of PWDs through PWD rights awareness, education on international and local statutes regarding PWDs and capacity building.
Voice-Ghana recently set up a research and consultancy unit as a disability think tank to play active and leading role in policy advocacy and inclusive governance for persons with disabilities. — GNA