CIL Sofia and the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, 2013

1. CIL Sofia and the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, 2013

2. Actions prior to andduring the elections: • Survey • Preparing materials for disabled people • Preparing materials for campaigners • Inviting political parties’ representatives to meeting with CIL members • Forming civil coalition for monitoring the election process

3. The Survey • Prepared by CIL members • Distributed in the social networks, blogs, websites • Investigated 2 areas: • attitudes towards the election process • access to information

4. Survey results • People are willing to give their vote

5. Not satisfied with politicians’ work in the disability sphere- 50% say they don’t work!- dissatisfaction with environment and transport accessibility

6. - The same with education, occupation, PA service and technical aids

7. - Big problem – fake votes! PWD – vulnerable group  precondition for misuse (= people sell their votes)

8. Survey’s 2nd part – about information on campaigns’accessibility and usefulness • People with visual and hearing disabilities – again discriminated

9. Next measure – meeting politicians • Too few responded • Mistake – we invited them. We had to approach them!

10. Mobile polling stations • Not enough information provided • Potential misuse

11. Civil coalition for monitoring the elections • Different NGOs gathered with the aims to: • initiate a dialogue with the political parties • engage the media with issues concerning PWD and the election process • partnership with international observing organisations • ensure independent civil monitoring of the election process CIL Sofia participated with observers on the election day throughout the country.

12. Preparing materialsfor campaigners • Guidelines for making meetings with disabled voters accessible • exterior environment accessibility (parking, entrance) • Interior environment accessibility (doors, floor, signs, toilets, seats, hall’s acoustics, lighting) • Accessible information materials • Communicating with PWD (ask before you help, sit when speaking with a wheelchair user, no need of pity expression!)

13. Preparing materials for disabled voters • Leaflet ‘How to vote’ • check accessibility of polling station • info about required documentation • info about voting with a PA • how to report abuse

14. To recap: • Start planning on time • Don’t leave the initiative to come from politicians’ side. You need to be insistent! • Involve disabled peers into the whole process (materials preparation, meetings with politicians, election observers) • Make a survey and collect as much data as possible • Try to grab media’s attention • Inform PWD about their rights and about the election process (use the social media!) • Inform campaigners about PWD’s issues and how they should make the elections and their campaign accessible • Search for partner organisations and together monitor the campaign and election processes • Encourage PWD to be use their civil right to vote • Learn from our mistakes and do better work! • Looking forward to your feedback ;-)

15. GOOD LUCK!!!