Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva has asked the Central Election Commission (CEC) to adopt uniform rules for checking whether polling stations are accessible to people with disabilities, her press office said. She wants the ten measures to apply already to Sunday's presidential run-off.
Delcheva sent a draft checklist with her letter to commission chair Georgi Horozov. It lists the problems found, the institutions responsible and the deadlines for fixing them. A second check is made before election day.
Under the proposal, regional election commissions and local authorities would first walk the whole route from the street or car park to the voting place. Any obstacles must be removed, or another suitable room must be found. The plan also covers safe ramps, accessible parking spaces, a suitable place for the voting machines and advance information on the conditions at each polling station.
A polling station on the ground floor is not necessarily accessible, Delcheva said. She said people in wheelchairs, on crutches or with walking frames, as well as older people with limited mobility, often struggle to vote, or cannot vote at all, because of steps, unsuitable ramps, narrow entrances and other barriers.
The letter was prompted by reports from people who had trouble voting.
In the presidential election, Bulgaria had 9,373 polling stations with machine voting. Two machines were placed in 2,249 of them, and there were 11,622 machines in all.