Society for the Blind insists on 'trusted friend' when voting

Recent Constitutional amendments to the General Elections Act (Act No. XXI of 2007), providing for special means that enable visually-impaired persons to vote independently, without assistance, are a giant step forward, the Malta Society for the Blind told The Sunday Times last week.

Ron Colombo, the society's president, expressed his satisfaction at these amendments, saying decisive action had finally been taken to support people with disability, but "we won't stop here".

The MSB, together with other societies for the blind, such as Torball and the Gozo Association for the Visually-Impaired (GAVI), have been campaigning for a dignified voting system for the visually-impaired for several years.

In January 2006, the society decided to tackle the matter at court, and filed a judicial protest against the Electoral Commission and the Attorney General.

The court delivered its sentence last June 26, and although it found that there had not been a violation of the Equal Opportunities Act, "it was not insensitive to the society's demands and took a further step to urge Parliament to address the matter".

"News of the proposed amendments came when our lawyer, Dr Robert Attard, was on the brink of following our first lawsuit with a constitutional application. The amendments mirrored what we had asked for in our first case," Mr Colombo said.

Individual members of associations for the visually-impaired, such as Kevin Cutajar, who lobbied on the political front, and Andrew Camilleri, former president of Torball, who devised a voting template for the blind, have also campaigned for this significant change in the voting system.

Although the society is grateful to all those who made this important step possible, "we insist on the implementation of an additional system that would allow a visually-impaired person the option to vote, assisted by a trusted friend," Mr Colombo said.

The template, identical to the ballot paper, featuring a number of cut-out windows corresponding to the candidates, comes together with a recording that the visually-impaired person listens to, and is an ideal way for visually-impaired persons to vote.

"But this method is suitable only for a certain percentage of visually-impaired persons," Mr Colombo argued.

"Elderly persons who are visually-impaired, or others who are not yet familiar with this new system of voting, would still need the help of a trusted friend."

The trusted friend voting system is used in over 20 EU countries, and is considered to be "the one alternative common to all countries".

"We insist on being like other European countries," Mr Colombo said.