Visually-impaired people have urged the Election Commission (EC) to make necessary arrangements so that they can have the secret voting right.

At an interaction on election of the House of Representatives and provincial assemblies at Dhulikhel on Tuesday, the visually impaired also drew the EC’s notice to the lack of voter education programmes for the people with disabilities.

Stating that the visually impaired have to cast their votes with the help from assistants designated at the polling centres, Ramesh Pokharel, chairperson of the Nepal Association of Blind, said that making arrangements for blind people to vote secretly would not be that much of problem as 70 percent of them are involved in teaching profession.

In response, Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav said that the poll body would consider using technology in future elections to address the concerns raised by the visually impaired and people with disabilities.

Speaking at the programme, Shiva Prasad Shinkhada, chief district officer of Kavrepalanchok and Kundan Das Shrestha of the United Nations Development Programme (ESP) among others said that all the people have the responsibility to make the elections successful. (RSS)

Source: http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-11-16/blind-people-call-for-secret-voting-rights.html