EC to provide tactile ballot papers at future elections

Election Commissioner General Saman Ratnayake, on Friday, said that steps would be taken to make available tactile ballot papers at polling station for the use of the visually impaired community in the future.

Speaking at a forum organised by the Parliamentary Caucus for Persons with Disabilities at the Waters Edge in Battaramulla in line with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities marked on 03 Dec., Ratnayake said that a pilot project carried out recently to implement providing tactile ballot papers for the blind votes had been a success.

Rasanjali Pathirage, President of the Disability Organizations Joint Front said that 8.7 percent of the country’s population, amounting to nearly 1.6 million people, belonged to the disabled community.

She said people with disabilities in this country did not have access to public transport.

Chairman of the caucus Matara District SLPP-dissident MP Dullas Alahapperuma said his caucus had decided to fight for the rights of disabled community. “Although Sri Lanka is a signatory to the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since 2006, we are far behind the developed countries in recognising the rights of disabled persons,” he said.

Chairperson of the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus, Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, its Co-Vice-Chairperson, Rohini Kumari Wijeratne, MPs Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, KPS Kumarasiri, Udayana Kirindigoda, Premnath Dolawatta, Director of Peoples’ Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFEREL) Rohana Hettiarachchi, Director National Democratic Institute (NDI) Shyama Salgadu, members of the Disabled Organizations Joint Front, election monitoring organizations and civil organizations were also present at the meeting.