The Central Election Commission (CEC) has ordered 1,500 tactile templates so that people with poor sight can vote with paper ballots in the presidential election on 25 October. Commission members backed the decision unanimously, with nine votes in favour.

The Demax printing house will make the templates and hand them to the regional election commissions. These will pass them on to the polling station commissions, together with the municipal administrations.

Georgi Bakhanov submitted the draft decision. He said people with disabilities should have an equal chance to vote on their own.

The printing house was first due to hand the templates to the regional commissions by Saturday, 24 October. CEC deputy chair Ismail Osman proposed an earlier date, to leave time for the templates to reach the polling station commissions before election day. The final deadline is now Friday, 23 October.

Before the vote, the CEC spent nearly two hours in closed session discussing technical and logistical issues.