Committee green-lights bill to facilitate blind to vote without help
The bill was adopted and sent to the committee of the whole house on Tuesday to speed up the amendment for the September 9 presidential elections.
Parliament's committee of the whole house on Wednesday green-lighted an amendment to the Elections (General) Act to make it easier for people with visual disabilities to vote without the help of anyone else.
The bill was adopted and sent to the committee of the whole house on Tuesday to speed up the amendment for the September 9 presidential elections. The committee passed the bill with the vote of 63 members.
Government introduced the bill in parliament to provide for a provision for people with visual disabilities to mark on the ballot papers through a plastic template dedicated to them while casting their votes, and to provide for rules to ensure the secrecy of the votes of such persons.
The bill, sponsored by Hinnavaru MP Jeehan Mahmood, seeks to amend the law by introducing plastic templates used by people with visual disabilities and how it can be used to facilitate voting.
In the ballot paper template used by the visually impaired voters to cast their votes:
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Each candidate's candidate number has been kept tactile so that it doesn't get mixed when the ballot paper is put in the template
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In order to vote for the candidates, there should be a cut on the template
According to the bill, the Elections Commission will have to provide instructions to voters who want to use the template to exercise it.
The commission should make arrangements for people with visual disabilities to vote on their own using the template, according to the bill:
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If a person wishes to vote using the template, the ballot paper issued to him/her should be released after putting it in the template
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Issuing of ballot papers and templates prohibits anyone from appearing at the polling booth until the voter goes to the polling booth to mark it on the ballot paper; no one should indulge in any act that will compromise the confidentiality of his/her vote
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Voters should use the ballot paper template to mark it on the ballot paper and then go to the polling booth to remove the ballot paper from the template so that the confidentiality of the vote is maintained
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Election officials can help the visually impaired to move from one place to another inside the polling stations
Two amendments were proposed to the bill in the committee.
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Maafannu Central MP Ibrahim Rasheed proposed an amendment to replace the phrase 'people with visual disabilities' with 'visually impaired'; 39 members voted to reject the amendment, while 17 members voted to accept it
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Horafushi MP Ahmed Saleem proposed that ballot paper templates should be a transparent tool; the amendment was passed with a vote of 60 members
Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, after the committee adopted the bill with the amendment moved by MP Saleem, said that the bill would be brought to the floor as soon as possible.
"I hope it will be concluded next week," he said.
