Accra, March 10, GNA - Citizens with disabilities on Wednesday called on political parties to include issues affecting them in their manifestoes and show how they intended to address them since they were also part of the electorate.

They said they had been neglected for far too long and the time when the disabled was made to grope in political darkness was gone forever, adding that in making choices, no more would they be baited with empty promises.

Mr Yaw Poku Attakora-Asamoah, President of Ghana Against Disability, a non-governmental organisation, was speaking on behalf the disabled at the opening of a two-day workshop on involving people, who are physically challenged in Elections 2004.

The workshop brought together about 70 people with disabilities from the Eastern, Central, Western, Volta and Greater-Accra Regions. It was to empower the disabled with the requisite skills and knowledge to enter the nation's political life as active participants.

Mr Attakora-Asamoah said there was the need for politicians to understand that the assertion that as disabled, they had the power in altering the political landscape through the exercising of their constitutional rights was no more a rhetoric that could be dismissed as empty bluff.

"If in 2000 Elections, President Kufuor won the elections by 848,530 votes, then, one million disabled voters with their appendages can cause 'havoc' if our grievances are not addressed."

He said the Disability Bill has delayed for far too long and urged the Government to issue the necessary administrative directives for its passage.

He also expressed grief on the fact that the disabled had always not been involved whenever a decision concerning them was taken, adding, "we know our problems and what to do to address them but we are always left out".

Dr Angela Ofori-Atta, Deputy Minister of Employment and Manpower Development, urged them to always use negotiations and lobby to address their grievances instead of demonstrations.

She said the Ministry through the Social Welfare Department had put in place some strategies to rehabilitate the disabled. She told them that the Disability Bill was presented to Parliament but there were some few issues that needed to be clarified and urged them to exercise patience.