In a first, Braille-enabled ballot papers in Meghalaya

SHILLONG

: For the first time in

Meghalaya

, Braille-enabled ballot papers will be made available at all polling booths to ensure wider participation of voters in the upcoming

Lok Sabha election

.

Chief electoral officer of the state, FR Kharkongor, said, “All efforts are being made to ensure a more inclusive election and we have mapped over 4,500 people with disabilities to make sure that they get priority at polling booths”. He added, “The ballot papers pasted on the EVMs will have the names and symbols of candidates in Braille alphabets. There are more than 800 visually impaired voters in the state.”

The state election department is encouraging the youth and persons with disabilities to come out and vote as part of its campaign ‘No Voter to Be Left Behind’. “Accordingly, the social welfare department has asked all community resource workers to be present at poll booths to assist the aged and the differently abled,” said Kharkongor.

Meghalaya, which has Shillong and Tura

Lok Sabha

constituencies, will go to polls on April 11. The counting of votes will be take place on May 23 and the results will be announced the same day.

Kharkongor said the state, which has 18, 92,716 voters as on January 17, 2019, is gearing up for the polls. He added that there are 3167 polling stations spread acroos the state. Of them, 704 are vulnerable, 249 are critical and 68 are both critical and vulnerable polling stations. He added that 86 polling stations are along the international border with Bangladesh and 171 are along the inter-state boundary with Assam. Given the fact that women form a major component of the electorate in Meghalaya, he informed that there will be 60 all- women polling stations in the state.

In view of the fact that voters in the age group of 18-39 comprise a large chunk of the electorate, the department has undertaken tailor-made awareness programmes. “The election department has utilized art, music to videos to reach out to eligible voters and urge them to exercise their franchise,” said Kharkongor.

Bertha Dkhar, who has never let her disability come in the way of her responsibilities as a citizen of the country, urged every visually impaired voter to take advantage of the new ballot paper. “I used to take my confidant with me every time to the polling booth, as I found it difficult to locate the buttons and the serial numbers of the candidates. This time, I hope things will be different,” Dkhar, who works as a senior coordinator for education at NGO Bethany Society, said.

The election department, in close coordination with the Meghalaya Deaf Association, has also imparted training on sign languages to booth-level officials, the CEO said, adding that the department has recently launched a queue management app to ensure easy and hassle-free voting.