The record number of parties contesting the 7 May national and provincial elections has led to the Electoral Commission (IEC) and South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) having to develop a special new cardboard ballot template to allow visually impaired voters to vote unaided in the 2014 elections.
The new cardboard template can accommodate the 7 May national ballot paper featuring the 29 parties and replaces the existing plastic Universal Ballot Template used in previous elections which can only accommodate a ballot paper with up to 18 parties.
The new cardboard template works in exactly the same way as the plastic UBT. It has windows numbered in Braille and with raised letters so that people with different tactile-literacy levels can use the same template. This cardboard UBT will be used for both Provincial and National ballots in the May 7 elections.
The National and Provincial Elections take place on 7 May 2014.
For this election, the following number of parties appears on the ballot papers:
National : 29
Eastern Cape: 18
Free State: 16
Gauteng: 22
KwaZulu-Natal: 18
Limpopo: 20
Mpumalanga: 16
Northern Cape: 16
North-West: 16
Western Cape: 26
For those voters who wish to familiarise themselves with the order of the political parties on the national and provincial ballots before going to vote, the IEC has made this information available through its Call Centre. Voters need only contact the Call Centre on 0800118000 and select the self-service option to hear the list of parties as they appear on the national and provincial ballot papers. Calls are free if made from an ordinary Telkom landline.
For more information on the 2014 Universal Ballot Template please contact:
Madalein Greyling
South African National Council for the Blind
Tel: 012 452 3811
E-mail: madalein@sancb.org.za
Mfundo Shabane
Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC)
Tel: 012 622 5430
E-mail: shabanee@elections.org.za
Photographs of new UBT are available on request for using with the article. Please send the request to: spokesperson@elections.org.za
For IEC media queries, please contact:
Kate Bapela
Cell: 082 600 6386
For IEC media interviews, please e-mail requests to: spokesperson@elections.org.za
For SANCB queries, please contact:
Jace Nair
Tel: 012 452 3811
E-mail: jace@sancb.org.za
