HPA must ensure voting rights for Covid-19 patients: EC
EC President continues to highlight the challenges faced by the commission to conduct elections in a pandemic
EC President Shareef maintains that the commission has been facing many difficulties in preparing for elections under the state of public health emergency
President of the Elections Commission (EC) Ahmed Shareef has said that it is the responsibility of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) to transport to voting stations those citizens positive for Covid-19 who wish to exercise their right to vote in the Local Council and Women's Development Committee (WDC).
The Elections Commission (EC) has previously stated that they have been facing severe difficulties in conducting the Local Council and WDC Elections scheduled to be conducted on 10 April, as the nation continues to be in a state of public health emergency. EC further added that while the Health Protection Agency (HPA) had issued special health and safety guidelines for the vote in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, they were highly restricting for the commission and presented challenges that were difficult to resolve.
Speaking on RaajjeTV's "Fashaairu" programme regarding the upcoming elections, EC President Shareef said that no citizen could be deprived of their constitutional right to vote, and that even those who were positive for Covid-19 should be affirmed their right to vote in the Local Council and WDC electrinos.
Shareef further added that the EC would be working to make voting easy and accessible for all those eligible to cast a ballot. EC President also declared that it was not the commission's responsibility to transport a patient positive for Covid-19 to the voting station, and that they did not have the capacity to prepare for that possibility as things stand.
Noting that the EC had engaged in many discussions with HPA in order to come up with a feasible way to conduct elections, the commission's president Shareef declared that as those positive for Covid-19 were isolated under the directive of HPA, the public health authority would be the party responsible to guarantee that citizen their right to vote.
Shareef went on to declare that in the event that a person positive for Covid-19 expresses a desire to vote, HPA would be obligated to transport them to a voting station as it was unconstitutional to deny them their right to vote. Shareef further added that the EC would facilitate voting procedure for those positive for Covid-19 at voting stations with health and safety regulations in place to prevent transmission of the virus among voters.
