For years, persons with visual impairment have been disadvantaged when it comes to voting.
However, the Guyana Society for the Blind is on a mission to ensure systems are in place to allow for its members to exercise their right to vote.
President of the Guyana Society for the Blind, Cecil Morris told the Inews that they are planning to engage the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on its preparations for persons who are visually impaired.
“There is a problem with voting because we always seem to have this misunderstanding on polling day. We’re in the process of engaging GECOM so that we can work those challenges out. We hope that before elections, we can have those matters corrected,” Morris stated.
During the last General Elections in 2015, templates were introduced for visually impaired persons to put over the ballot and vote.
However, the templates were not utilized by officers at the polls. We would really appreciate if they could make use of it,” the GSB president posited.
Additionally, the Society is calling calling for the polling stations to be on the ground floor of buildings to cater for persons with physical disabilities.
“One of the concerns with persons with a physical disability is that when they vote, the polling place is up in a building so we’re asking GECOM to make certain moves so that polling stations is on the ground floor so that persons can have easy access to it.”
Since the passage of the no-confidence motion on December 21, 2018, elections are constitutionally due by March 21.
