{"id":46008,"date":"2024-06-04T13:35:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T11:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/lofob-criticises-iec-over-exclusion-of-blind-voters-in-recent-elections-20240604\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T22:31:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T20:31:41","slug":"lofob-criticises-iec-over-exclusion-of-blind-voters-in-recent-elections-20240604","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/lofob-criticises-iec-over-exclusion-of-blind-voters-in-recent-elections-20240604\/","title":{"rendered":"Lofob criticises IEC over exclusion of blind voters in recent elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The League of the Friends of the Blind (Lofob) has accused the IEC of inadequacies that excluded blind individuals during voting. <\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lofob highlighted the unavailability of a special voting template for blind people, leading to privacy concerns and a lack of independence in voting.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lofob has emphasised the need for fair elections and called on the IEC to investigate and ensure independent voting for blind individuals in the future.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The League of the Friends of the Blind (Lofob) has called out the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) for \u201cinadequacies\u201d which reportedly left blind people \u201cexcluded\u201d at the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement on Tuesday 28 May, Lofob explained that the special voting template designed for blind people was unavailable, which detracted from the privacy of the vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLofob made its premises available to facilitate voting for blind people on the special voting day on Monday 27 May,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div contenteditable=\"false\" data-embed24=\"Blockquote\" data-pos=\"middle\" id=\"embed_30195680\">\n<div class=\"text\">\u201cBlind people felt their dignity, independence and human rights were not respected.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Lofob further said it was a shame on South Africa that blind people were treated in that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBlind people want to vote independently and in secret, this was not possible and therefore the election can\u2019t be declared free and fair.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shahiemah Edwards, Lofob executive director, says blind people want to be part of society and not excluded as they worked hard to get the correct templates in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is such a great pity that all our efforts to encourage blind people to participate independently in voting are disregarded by seemingly non-caring government officials,\u201d said Edwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-discussions\">Discussions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Edwards further claimed that Lofob on three different occasions prior to the elections had discussions with IEC officials to pave the way for a fair election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLofob calls on the IEC to investigate what went wrong and how this can be avoided in future,\u201d she said. \u201cLofob stands ready as in the past to advise and guide the IEC on matters pertaining to blind people voting independently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Benita Petersen, Lofob manager for children, youth and adults, says blind people should be treated as equal members of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IEC spokesperson Lenore Oliver confirmed receipt of questions regarding the allegations and promised to respond in due course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI will need time to get back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The League of the Friends of the Blind (Lofob) has called out the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) for &#8216;inadequacies&#8217; which reportedly left blind people &#8216;excluded&#8217; at the 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This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lofob criticises IEC over exclusion of blind voters in recent elections | People&#039;s Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/lofob-criticises-iec-over-exclusion-of-blind-voters-in-recent-elections-20240604\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lofob criticises IEC over exclusion of blind voters in recent elections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The League of the Friends of the Blind (Lofob) has called out the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) for &#039;inadequacies&#039; which reportedly left blind people &#039;excluded&#039; at the 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