New Horizon Printing Press says it has no capacity to print the 2011 ballot papers.
ZANIS reports that the Lusaka based New Horizon Printing Press Managing Director Shawky Hemeidan said during a press briefing that his firm has no security printing equipment for printing ballot papers.
He further stated that New Horizon Printing Press does not have the technology and the know how to print the 2011 ballot papers.
Mr. Hemeidan revealed that New Horizon Printing Press intends to invest 5.7 million dollars in procuring security printing equipment that will be used to print the 2016 ballot papers.
He told journalists that his firm did not participate in the tendering of printing the 2011 ballot papers because the company had no capacity to print the ballot papers.
And Mr. Hemeidan says New Horizon Printing Press is the biggest print press in Zambia surpassing government printers.
Meanwhile , Mr. Hemeidan has thanked the general public for having faith in the company by suggesting that the company prints the 2011 ballot papers.
The development somewhat pacifies the growing calls and concerns in sections of society who are calling on the Electoral Commission of Zambia ( ECZ ) cancel the contract with the Universal Printing Group (UPG ) of South Africa due to alleged corruption.
The ECZ has however remained adamant to this call and has gone ahead with the contract. It has also for reasons of transparency dispatched an observer team to Durban , South Africa on a fact finding mission concerning the operations of the company.
ZANIS
Has New Horizon never participated in the tenders for printing ballot papers before? Not just the 2011 elections!
IM SUPRISED AT THE CURRENT RATE EDITORS OF MY FORMER FAVORITE SITE LUSAKA TIMES ARE IMPOSING ON US NEWS FROM THE ZAMBIAN PUBLIC MEDIA…EVEN IF YOU ARE SUPPORTERS OF MMD PLEASE GIVE US BALANCED NEWS. KODI ISE MAZAMBIANS TILI BWANJI? A SIMPLE ISSUE OF BALANCING NEWS COULD EVEN HAVE MORE BLOGGERS ON YOUR SITES BUT THE NONSENSE OF SELECTING WHAT TO PUT WILL COST YOU VERY SOON. YOU MEAN YOUR EDITORS ARE SO DUMB THAT THEY CANT DIFFERENTIATE THAT ZAMBIA HAS PRIVATE AND PUBLIC MEDIA? IM NOT A PF SUPPORTER BUT I LIKE READING SENSIBLE NEWS ITEMS NOT USELESS WRITING ALWAYS IN SUPPORT OF THE MMD. ALL OF A SUDDEN LT SEEM TO BE LOADING AND LORDING OVER US NEWS FROM DAILY SNAIL, WINES OF ZAMBIA AND DEAD N B SEE. MWE BANTU TWAPAPATA PLEASE GIVE US BALANCED NEWS. EVEN PROPAGANDA SHOULD BE DONE NICELY PLIZ
Blogging should also be done nicely – the use of all capitals on an online forum is discouraged because it is anti-social by nature. It conveys emotions of sarcasm and has the appearance of someone shouting at you. No one enjoys being shouted at.
Thank you.
They are already printing…Why didnt they do these interviews or find out before???????????????
if i got it correct that even the one printng in south Africa doesnt it along it gives to other printing companies to help so the Horizon can also do so save us from this great lies LT
Iwe Kwezenjani don’t write in capital letters , its like u are shouting at people stop it!!!!!!!!!
Maybe the Caps Locks is jammed, upgrade your ancient  keyboard please!! Kekeke
Good afternoon
This report only shows us once again how far we are from being self reliable. With all the talk about development and a fast growing economy, is there no local press with the capacity and technology, much less the know-how to print something as simple as ballot papers?
It’s about time the government began to seriously focus on boosting up specific industries within the country. If a basic things like an election cannot even work in our country without looking for foreign assistance, then it means that we urgently need to diversify our industries, reform our educational standards and encourage more local enterpreneurship.
One thing i want to find out is how much is this contract worth?
 If a company intends to invest $ X millions just for 2016 elections that means this is a very very lucrative contract!!
Reduce or exempt duty on these machines you halfwits in government, you’ll save alot of money in 5 years time as the job will be done locally, payment in local currency and competition for tender will be high hence reduced costs!!
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH common sense is not so common!!
No. 7
True unfortunately the dinosaur leaders we have don’t see it that way, outsourcing is the way forward for them, and kickbacks in forex…only local entrepreneurs develop communities without a them you have no foundation!!Â
The catching of Fodef who stole a ballot paper in RSA shows that Zambia has no capacity to print ballot papers at the moment and justifies the printing in RSA until 2016.
Zedman in China maybe you’ve been intoxicated by Chinese mediocrity, my caps lock is not jammed…was just trying to drive a point. Its easier for you to know how much Im angry by that caps emphasis. I feel LT has been overtaken by one sided politics..you have to really search for you to get any opposing postings let alone balanced news reports. I hope its gotten to your head
No need to tell us now,,, you have been printing we know.. You did it in 2008 just keep on. Dont justify yourself after hearing that Mr. Sata knows you are keeping some ballot papers alread.Â
New Horizon Manager be ashamed. You should have just kept quiet than allow yourself to be used
Its not the capacity to print sophiscated ballots which cannot stop ballot box staffing of premarked ballots by the GRZ SHUSHUSHU!
It is like this:
1. The rolling of paper should have been rolled only after opposition parties have put their security codes in the paper features.
2. The rolls of paper should have been moved to the printer in secured containers and with escort. Since this was not done, perhaps three rolls were sent elsewhere for parallel Printing. The reps sent to view couldnt know that the master were duplicated and SHUSHUSHU are doing Parallel Printing!
3. These will come at the same time with Real ballots. The SS will distribute in selected areas for RB.
4. The only way out of this is for opposition parties to inplant a secret code.
Ba chi-ka-la na balyamo……………..
ha ha ha!!! obbbvvvvvvvious
………the implanted security code can be machine read and reject any cloned ballot BEFORE throwing into the ballot box. Past this RB WILL BE SOWN-IN AT 06HRS. THE COURTS HAVE ALREADY THROWN THE BABY WITH THE BATH WATER AND BUCKET!………the implanted security code can be machine read and reject any cloned ballot BEFORE throwing into the ballot box. Past this RB WILL BE SOWN-IN AT 06HRS. THE COURTS HAVE ALREADY THROWN THE BABY WITH THE BATH WATER AND BUCKET!
How can ECZ send one of their own to observe the printing process ‘for reasons of transparency’? They awared the contract to UPG so surely they can not be expected to be objective!! Are ECZ jokers or should we blame the reporter who wrote this article for misrepresenting the situation? Any onsite verifications/visits are supposed to have taken place as part of the Tender evaluation and selection process and not now after the work is already in progress. So long the Terms of reference where professionally drawn up then UPG should deliver what is expected regardless of whether their are ECZ observes or not. It would even make sense to have observes representing the various political parties or independent observers than the ECZ. I guess any excuse to travel to Durban…
We should appreciate the gesture by ECZ to send a team to witness the printing of ballot papers for 2011 tripartite elections. This is good attempt towards transparency. The move does not however, insure that ballot papers are not printed for rigging. It is possible for ballot papers to be printed by the same machines between successful filing in of nominations and the time observers arrive at the press. Unless of course when the observers put in a security feature agreed among them so that any ballot paper that was printed earlier would be discounted off during counting. Another point where the so called rigging could be done is to print ballot papers just after the observer team leaves the printing house and then have them sneaked into the election country before elections. Cont.
Another level for possible rigging is the computer system whose sheet for logging in should be checked for formulae that would add figures to the preferred candidate while figures in cells for non preferred candidates read as typed in! By the rigging can be done by both incumbent and the challengers. Check this out.
It is very very difficult to trust what this New Horizon Printing Press Managing Director Shawky Hemeidan is saying because even ACC director general Kayukwa said the same lies when he was confronted with the ECZ corruption scandal. ISAAC at ECZ even went to rubbish the corruption case. What a shame.
Did President Banda and his MMD official force this New Horizon Printing Press Managing Director Shawky Hemeidan to issue this statement so that his INVESTMENT is guaranteed in Zambia.
LORD help us from this shame coming from this scandal!!!!
lots of comments here and lots of different viewsÂ
Wiser needs to go monitor these elections
l just hope people decide not based on partyÂ
but whats best for the countryÂ