The Central Elections Commission (CEC) signed today a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Palestine Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) and The General Union of People with Disabilities (GUPWD), to develop and unify a database for People with Disabilities (PWD) in Palestine. The database aims to reach as many PWD as possible, which contributes in providing them with social services and encouraging them to participate in the political and electoral process.
Dr. Hanna Nasir, Chairman of the CEC, signed the MoU with Dr. Ahmad Majdalani, the Minister of Social Development, and Mr. Majdi Merei, the Secretary General of the GUPWD, at the headquarters of the CEC in Al-Bireh.
In his speech prior to signing, Dr. Nasir said that this MoU stems from the desire to connect institutions that provide services to PWD, in order to expand the political participation in democratic life and the electoral process among the different segments of the society, as well as, to provide the best services to citizens, especially those with disabilities.
For his part, Minister Majdalani emphasized the importance of this MoU in contributing towards promoting the rights of PWD and their participation in democratic life and the electoral process. Adding that it would ensure the inter-flow of data between the Ministry and the Union, which contributes to accessing the largest amount of data of PWD.
In his turn, Mr. Merei expressed the union’s aspiration for this MoU to assist in providing a national database for PWD fed according to the system of the GUPWD. Which, according to him, would ensure representing the largest number of PWD in this database for their own benefit and for partners to be able to provide them with the best services.
The MoU stipulates that the MoSD grants the GUPWD access to the electronic portal that contains the data of persons with disabilities; allowing the union to feed it with the information of its members, and share it with official and non-official parties in order to provide services for this group. According to the MoU as well, the CEC is granted access to the database to directly obtain information about the numbers of voters with disabilities, their geographical distribution and types of disabilities, and their registration and polling centers to facilitate their access to them. In addition to adapting procedures to suit this important group, and producing visual and audio awareness materials and publications in languages and systems that accommodate different types of disabilities.
It is worth mentioning that this agreement falls within the activities of the “Enhancing Political and Electoral Participation of Persons with Disabilities” project, which is implemented by the Central Elections Commission and funded by the European Union.