Director of Operations and Programmes at One Family People Sierra Leone, Samuel P. O. V. Macauley, has called for greater political representation of persons with disabilities (PwDs), urging political parties and policymakers to move beyond treating them primarily as voters. Samuel P. O. V. Macauley made the call during the popularization of Sierra Leone’s National Inclusion Policy, organized by the African Youth with Disabilities Network Sierra Leone, where he challenged stakeholders to rethink the meaning of political inclusion.
He argued that persons with disabilities who are considered capable of voting for political parties and candidates should equally be given opportunities to contest elections, influence policy and hold public office.
“If persons with disabilities are good enough to vote for politicians they are good enough to become politicians,” Samuel P. O. V. Macauley said.
He criticized the practice of mobilizing persons with disabilities as an electoral constituency during election periods without creating meaningful opportunities for them to participate in political leadership.
According to him, political inclusion should not end with voter registration and participation at the polls but must extend to equal opportunities to contest elections and exercise political power.
Samuel P. O. V. Macauley identified several barriers that continue to limit the political participation of PwDs, including candidature fees, inaccessible voter registration and polling centres, and ballot systems that do not adequately accommodate voters with different disabilities.
“We cannot celebrate inclusion while candidature fees remain a barrier to persons with disabilities seeking elective office,” he said.
He also questioned the effectiveness of inclusion policies when there are inadequate mechanisms to ensure their implementation and accountability.
“We cannot call democracy inclusive when ballot systems do not adequately accommodate voters with different disabilities. And we certainly cannot keep producing beautiful inclusion policies while nobody is held accountable for implementing them,” Samuel P. O. V. Macauley stated.
He called on political parties to stop viewing persons with disabilities solely as an electoral constituency and instead recognize them as potential candidates, policymakers and political leaders.
Samuel P. O. V. Macauley said the national conversation should therefore shift from asking whether persons with disabilities can vote to determining when they will have equal opportunities to contest elections, win and govern.
He urged Sierra Leone to move “from tokenism to representation, from promises to accountability and from consultation to power-sharing.”
“Persons with disabilities don’t need political pity. They need political opportunity,” he stressed.
Samuel P. O. V. Macauley concluded that genuine democratic inclusion must be measured by the extent to which persons with disabilities have access to political power and decision-making, rather than by policy commitments alone.
“Let them vote. Let them contest. Let them lead. Let inclusion be measured by power, not promises,” he said.
He maintained that inclusion without political representation remains only a partial expression of democracy.
