The visually impaired also vote - Daily News

The visually impaired also vote

May 12, 2007 | 21:08

May 12 is National Assembly Election Day in Armenia and the doors of the polling stations have been open for voters since 8 a.m. Today has officially been announced a non-working day. Some stores and fairs of Yerevan are also closed. The state “car” has created opportunities for as much people as possible to participate in the elections. Today the people of Armenia are voting in new voting booths which remind one of wooden windowsills. The new booths occupy less space and replace the previous curtained booths. As of 2:45 p.m. out of the 1883 voters only 700 (35%) have participated in the elections at the 4/09 polling station of the Arabkir district.

Nina and Nora Sunamyan left the polling station in a good mood and with the hope of fair elections. The other voters were also leaving the polling station with hope and expectations. The 4/09 polling station is located in the building of the culture home of the visually impaired union. Upon our arrival at the polling station a visually impaired woman of Azerbaijani nationality was being accompanied to vote. She approached the voting booth with the accompanier and the accompanying individual filled in the blank of the woman’s choice. They also took the voting forms from the commission members prepared for the visually impaired for the first time this year, but she did not use it. A 70-year old man who was rushing to the polling station and who remained anonymous said that there are errors in the voting forms and that he is not going to vote with the help of those forms. So, two visually impaired citizens did not use the voting forms and violated their right to vote confidentially.

President of the electoral commission of the 4/06 polling station stationed in the no.54 school located nearby Hovik Harutyunyan assured that there has been an intensive flow of voters since morning. “Nearly 800 voters have already participated and there have not been any additional violations or registrations. The trusted people of different political parties and candidates of the majority electoral system and local observers have visited the polling station and the people are showing active participation,” assured the president of the commission.