Elderly voters arrive for casting their votes at a pollling station. PHOTO: PPI
The preparations for the local government elections on Saturday failed to take into account the senior citizens.
Many elderly men and women made their way to the polling stations only to realise that the booth was located on an upper floor they could not reach on their wheelchairs.
In Pehlwan Goth's UC-27's polling station, Ansari Public School, the polling booths were set up on second and first floors. People who were physically challenged were unable to make their way to the booths while the elderly were seen slowly climbing the stairs with their walking sticks.
"This is all we have received from the election commission," said the presiding officer, Hafeez Tunio. He added, however, that he was trying his best to prepare a booth on the ground floor.
An elderly man, Akhtar, sat on a small stool on the first floor, gasping for breath. "I am trying to catch my breath for 10 minutes before I can cast my vote," he said.
In Marora Goth, which falls under UC-30 in District East, the road outside Government Boys Primary School polling station was completely dug up. Only younger people who could hop over the sand piles were able to enter.
Muzammil, 21, sat outside the polling station waiting for his mother who, he said, was unable to walk properly. "She had to hop over these piles to get in," he said, adding that the road was dug up a month ago but no one bothered to fix it before the elections.
Even in District South, the polling booths located on the upper floors became an inconvenience for elderly voters. "How can I climb the stairs?" asked 86-year-old Inayat Ali. "They should have done something for us to cast our votes on the ground floor," he complained.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2015.
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