site.btaFive Constituencies Will Receive 400 Tactile Ballor Paper Templates

The Central Election Commission (CEC) decided Thursday that 400 tactile ballot paper templates with Braille markings for voting by visually impaired voters will be provided in Blagoevgrad, Plovdiv, and Sofia City’s three constituencies. According to the decision, Blagoevgrad will receive 90 templates, Plovdiv 70, and Sofia 240.

During the commission’s meeting, Deputy Chair and spokesperson, Rositsa Mateva, explained that CEC had sent a letter to the caretaker Minister of e-Government, Georgi Sharkov, requesting information on the technical possibility of producing tactile ballot paper templates. Minister Sharkov said that a printing house has been contracted, and given the short time until the elections, a total of 400 units can be produced.

“We held a meeting with the minister to discuss how to designate five constituencies, where the templates will be provided for voting by people with visual impairments and mobility difficulties,” Mateva explained. According to her, the constituencies were selected based on a table provided by the Union of the Blind, showing the distribution by regions and residence of visually impaired voters, as well as the feasibility of producing 400 templates.

The commission decided that the templates will be provided together with instructions on election day. The decision will be sent to the Union of the Blind and the National Association of the Deaf-Blind in Bulgaria.