AD pushes for 'dignified voting' for the blind

Ron Colombo accompanied his wife to the polling booth in the last general election hoping she could help him mark the ballot sheet. But the electoral commission representatives claimed the law allowed nobody except themselves to mark the votes on his behalf, insisting he take an oath about his blindness first.

Mr Colombo, president of the Malta Society for the Blind, said yesterday that voting was always a humiliating experience for blind people because they were not allowed to vote in secret.

Mr Colombo was addressing the press at the headquarters of Alternattiva Demokratika, which has taken up the issue and is calling on the Electoral Commission to respect the right to privacy and allow visually impaired people to vote with the help of a trusted person.

The same appeal was made by Joseph Stafrace, from the Torball Society of the Blind, and Leone Sciberras, who is on AD's committee for the south of Malta which was set up recently.

The system already exists in most European Union countries most of which also give the possibility to blind people to mark their ballot sheet with the help of a Braille template or audio facilities.

AD chairman Harry Vassallo said human dignity demanded that the right to privacy of the blind be respected.

Before the 2003 election, a delegation from organisations grouping blind or visually impaired people had taken the initiative by bringing up the issue with political parties.

Yet the Electoral Commission, which is controlled by the political parties, did not accept the suggestion to introduce the template system or audio aid without any valid reasons.

Dr Vassallo maintained that the societies had offered solutions. They even identified a local printing press that offered to do the work. The number of audio devices required would be in the region of 55.

AD urged the National Commission Persons with Disability to take up the issue.

Three organisations - the Malta Society for the Blind, Gozo Aid for the Visually Impaired and the Torball Society for the Blind - had filed a court case against the Electoral Commission and the Attorney General about the issue.

However, AD said, the applications were "mired in obstructive legalist obfuscation perpetrated by an unyielding bureaucracy".