Citizen Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Guatemala

General elections were held in Guatemala on November 9. It is important for us to examine what has been the participation of persons with disabilities in the history of this country, how have they participated within the electoral process, and how will they participate in the future.

Historically persons with disabilities have been excluded form civil, political, social, economic, and cultural participation in the nation. Persons with disabilities have been denied, within the family and the community, their rights to make decisions, even in public settings such as education, health, and work. When addressing the political participation of persons with disabilities, we first have to ensure that they are recognized as citizens, as persons, and with full civil and political rights.

Truncated rights
Article 13 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Guatemala, established that all persons, blind, or deaf, and those who became congenitally disabled or acquired such conditions early in childhood, must be declared incompetent for civilian purposes. Once declared as such, it means that these persons may not exercise their rights as citizens such as owning property, getting married, or signing legal documents (including checks). Furthermore, article 9 of this Civil Code establishes that persons with mental diseases need to be under interdiction, thus they are not allowed to exercise their rights.

These limitations imposed by the declaration of civil incompetence on persons with disabilities are, so far, insurmountable. They negatively affect their civil and political development, including the possibilities for free association, the right to work in certain professions such as public notary and, in a transcendental manner with respect to the democratic life of the nation, the right to elect and to be elected.

Although these are formidable obstacles signified by these articles, persons with disabilities have challenged them formally only on rare occasions, perhaps because in Guatemala the average citizen does not know what the legislation mandates.

Democratic accessibility
In 1990, with respect to the participation of persons with disabilities in the electoral processes, a battle was won as persons with visual disabilities were recognized in their right to vote and ballots in Braille were printed for the blind. On this election, it is the fourth time that this system is used, allowing blind voters to cast their votes independently.

Now, though every battle that we win means progress, not everything has been achieved for blind persons. In the first place, not all blind people use or know Braille. In this case, where the person does not use Braille, the Electoral Authority, in charge of the process and of guaranteeing its transparency, appoints an Officer to assist the person. The second problem is that the there are not enough ballots printed in Braille (three for every 500). That means that, when a person uses a ballot at a given voting station, the right to secret vote is lost.

Similar situations as described above have contributed to the generation of greater awareness on the part of the electoral authorities, improving the equal participation of persons with visual disabilities during this and future election processes. Because on the first round none of the candidates reached the minimum percentage established by the law, there has been a call issued for a new round next December 28, with a runoff between the two candidates who received the most votes. This is a good occasion for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to develop a more reliable mechanism for persons with visual disabilities. This is under negotiation with electoral authorities.

The participation of a Sign Language interpreter at the information counters of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal is an achievement of the deaf persons in Guatemala. It is still a partial success, because there is a need for the candidates and the political parties to provide the information in accessible formats.

Regarding physical accessibility, a brief study showed the lack of conditions for persons with physical disabilities at the voting centers. In the central part of the capital, where perhaps more than half of the voting centers are, had some accessibility because they were at sites made accessible long time ago. The architectural barriers and the lack of accessible physical space are problems transcending the electoral process. There is a lack of relevant building dispositions, which must be fulfilled with municipality regulations obtained by political action.

Electoral Agenda
The organizations of persons with disabilities prepared and presented minimum agendas to the presidential candidates and to the majority of the different municipalities.

To combat exclusion of persons with disabilities from the government plan of the political parties, our disability organizations approach the main candidates to propose their agendas and to demand their commitment and party actions concerning persons with disabilities, regarding health, education, work, social security, sports, culture, accessibility to physical space and to public transportation.

Guatemalans with disabilities are aware that in the next 4 years, the time before making the next change of the central government and the municipalities, it will be difficult to solve many of the great concerns they have. Yet, our optimism is based on the progressive visibility of this sector in national life. These efforts are made with the firm objective of building a participatory, inclusive, and democratic citizenship.

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