Kosovo Elections Made More Accessible
From: Disability World, Issue #5
October-December 2000
http://www.disabilityworld.org/10-12_00/gov/kosovo.htm

By Kay Schriner (kays@uark.edu)

Kosovo citizens with disabilities may have been surprised to find themselves the target of a get-out-the-vote effort in the October 28 municipal elections.

Disabled people, especially those who have difficulty leaving their homes, were the focus of a nationwide effort to "promote greater inclusion of people with disabilities" in elections, according to the International Foundation of Election Systems (IFES), one of the sponsors of the project.

Disabled people were provided transportation to registration sites, given the option of using any registration site (not just those to which they were assigned), and provided assistance by registration workers - all this so they could be registered to take part in the October elections.

Equally important was the Special Needs Voting Program for disabled individuals who could not leave their homes. These voters were given information about the registration process, educational materials about the electoral process, and finally, were visited by a team of 5 people to aid in the voting process and to ensure that the process was fair and unbiased.

Project sponsored included the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), and Hadikos (a Kosovo NGO for disabled persons). Partial funding for the project was provided by the government of Finland through IFES.

Handikos played a visible role. Twenty-five of its members were trained by the Joint Registration Taskforce, and its president, Hallit Ferizi, was appointed to a seat on the Central Election Commission of Kosovo as an alternate member. According to IFES, this appointment was significant because it put Mr. Ferizi on the "key governmental panel with decision making responsibility for the elections processes" and "contributed immeasurably to ensuring that the registration and election processes were inclusive of people with disabilities." Handikos also used its vehicles to provide transportation for disabled individuals.

The project registered more than 3500 individuals with disabilities. Approximately 80 registration facilities were made accessible. And to symbolize its "commitment to access," the Joint Registration Taskforce held a special event at the Pristina Registration Center to recognize the one-millionth applicant for registration - who was a man using a wheelchair.