A proposed amendment to the General Elections Act seeks to enable visually impaired individuals to independently vote in elections by using plastic templates.
The bill was introduced in Parliament by Hinnavaru MP Jeehan Mahmood on behalf of the government.
The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that visually impaired voters have the option to mark their ballot papers without needing assistance from anyone else. If they choose to do so, they can use a transparent plastic device called a ballot template. This template is designed to accommodate the ballot paper and has a range of tactile features to aid visually impaired voters in marking their choices. It has raised numbering and braille that corresponds to the openings on the template, which correspond to the candidate preference boxes on the ballot paper beneath it.
The Election Commission will be required to provide ballot templates for visually impaired voters at each polling station, as per the amendment. When someone requests to use the template, they will receive the ballot paper after it has been inserted into the template. This change in the law aims to empower visually impaired voters and give them greater autonomy in the voting process.
