03 Sep 2014

Some visually impaired voters say they are impressed by the ballot paper template developed to assist them to vote during the October 24 general elections.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) held a meeting at Cresta Lodge in Gaborone on Wednesday September 3 to discuss the ballot paper template with visually impaired voters and showed them how to use it.

The template was developed by IEC with assistance from the Ministry of Education and Skills Development.

During the meeting, attended by visually impaired people from various organisations, Mr Moji Mokibe, who is an education officer under the ministry’s ICT and media services, explained that the ballot paper would be inserted inside the ballot paper template.

He said presiding officers at polling stations would then read instructions for the visually impaired voters, which will guide them on how to use the template.

Visually impaired voters would then make a cross through holes in the template, corresponding to their choice of candidate in the ballot paper, to indicate which party they were voting.

Among attendants at the meeting were visually impaired people from Mochudi Resource Centre for the Blind, Botswana Association for the Blind and Partially Sighted, Central Association for the Blind and Disabled, and Botswana Council for the Disabled.

After an experimental exercise where they used the template to cast their vote, Tshepo Raditladi from Mochudi Resource Centre for the Blind said the template would assist them to vote without much hassle.

Another visually impaired person said he appreciated the effort made by IEC to assist them to vote. He said thanks to the template he would be able to vote for the first time at the age of 26.

However, they suggested that more modifications be made to the template to make it even better in the next general elections in 2019. Ms Motlapele Raleru, IEC chief education officer, said the ballot paper was first piloted during the Francistown West parliamentary bye elections last year, and was effective.

She said the IEC expects the ballot paper template to speed up the process of voting by visually impaired voters. Also, she believed it would help to increase the secrecy of who they vote for.

“The ballot paper template will be area-specific, which means that it will reflect only the parties contesting in particular areas,” she said. She said the IEC was waiting for the nomination of political candidates to be done before finalising the template.

On other issues regarding IEC preparations for the general elections, she said they were still awaiting amalgamation of the voters roll so that they can come up with an elections roll, which will be used at polls.

Ms Raleru said names in the voters roll would be arranged in alphabetical order. She said returning officers have been already identified, and IEC was in the process of hiring election officers and training them.

Ms Raleru explained that 824  073 people have registered for this year’s general elections and from this number, 368 204 are men, 455 869 are women. She further explained that out of the total registered people, 387 870 are youth.

She said 2 606 polling stations in 57 constituencies would be used during the elections. Ends