Dear Visitors,

I am very happy to welcome you to the election-related website of the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine. The purpose of this website is to provide factual, objective and non-partisan information related to the 2006 parliamentary elections. I would like to thank the Ukrainian authorities for their open and professional cooperation in working with OSCE PCU, and I hope that visitors will find this site to be both informative and useful.

Sincerely,

OSCE PCU assists in ensuring voter rights of people with special needs.

Kyiv, December 13, 2005 – the OSCE Project Co-ordinator hosted a round table on assistance in ensuring voter rights of people with disabilities that was also supported by the National Assembly of Disabled People of Ukraine. The round table gathered representatives of NGOs, MP, Deputy Chair of the Central Election Commission, and journalists to discuss current situation and formulate mechanisms for ensuring voter rights of people with different physical disabilities, handling which will enable them to vote freely and consciously during elections of the parliament and local self-government organs was the focus of the event.

While addressing a roundtable conference the CEC's Deputy Chair Maryna Stavniichuk announced that the commission will insist that election programs and video clips must be accompanied with sign-language translations for the deaf and people with hearing defects and support publication of the special editions of newspapers for blind, deaf and low mobile voters. "People with limited physical abilities, just like other citizens, want to make a conscientious choice," Stavniichuk said.

Moreover, the commission intends to send recommendations to election commissions regarding the design of the first floors of polling stations and their equipment with ramps, adjusted polling booths and tables, to enable people with limited physical abilities to gain access to the polling places.

Stressing the good will of the Central Election Commission to assist voters with special needs during election campaign, the president of the National Assembly of Disabled People, Parliamentary Deputy Valerii Sushkevych, said that the commission has accepted the assembly's demands and is presently working to ensure that disabled people have unobstructed access to the commission's building by equipping its entrance accordingly.

The results of the compilation of voter lists showed that there are presently about 100,000 citizens who are incapable of moving around independently. However, this figure can change as the elections approach.