Still no secret vote for the visually impaired

Tsitsi Janga

Visually impaired people have appealed to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to make provision for braille voting in the upcoming harmonised elections. 

Speaking to Community Podium, Gift Mundicha from Gateway To Elation an organisation that supports visually impaired people, said affected citizens have difficulty during voting and are at the mercy of those who assist them during voter registration and on polling day.

“During voter registration , our people had to be accompanied by someone to assist them to register. This is why we are saying on voting day, ZEC should provide braille material so that we may be able to exercise our right to secretly vote for the candidates we want  in keeping with the mantra ‘my vote is my secret,” said Mundicha.

He added that the call for the electoral body to alleviate the plight of visually impaired people has been made consistently over the years and that in response ZEC has promised to provide braille in voting but nothing has been done to this day.

“It’s been years since we pleaded for braille but till today there is nothing. This impedes on our ability to exercise our right to vote secretly like everyone else,” he said.

Another visually impaired man, Themba Moyo said while it is a noble idea to introduce braille voting, it must also be noted among the visually impaired, there are some who do not know how to use braille. He said ZEC must provide a voting template that will guide those who cannot use braille during voting.

“The template should be provided prior to the elections and it should include logos and emblems for different political parties so that it is easy for us to choose and vote for the party or candidates we want,” said Moyo.

 Director of Gateway to Elation, Robert Malunda said it is good that ZEC currently allows visually impaired citizens  to bring their own assistants to help them vote but the process can be eased further by introducing the use of braille in voting.

“In the National Disability Policy that was launched by the President of Zimbabwe, there is a section where it says all people of Zimbabwe need to be included in all systems of the country and we believe that elections are not an exception.

I am happy that we have a blind Commisioner, Kudzai Shava in ZEC who will be our representative,” said Malunda.

Section 3.24.3 of the National Disability Policy accepts and facilitates the use of Zimbabwean Sign language, braille, augmentative and alternative communication and all other accessible means, modes and formats of communication based on the choice of persons with disabilities including official interactions.

 A paper by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) says people with disabilities should participate in elections as voters, candidates for elective office and also polling officials, election observers, party agents, media monitors and other election duties.