The printing of ballot papers for all levels of Zambia’s August 11, 2016 general elections has been completed in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) in the Middle East.
And the nine political parties being represented here are satisfied with the whole printing process that has been going on since July 5th July, 2016.
Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Senior Public Relations Officer Sylvia Bwalya announced that all ballot papers have since been printed successfully adding that only the packaging of the national assembly and local government ballot papers was still on-going.
“I am glad to inform you that we have completed the printing of ballot papers and I must say that this is a major milestone in the timeline of the printing process,” Ms. Bwalya told team Zambia at the Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company in Dubai today.
She said the presidential, referendum, mayoral, local government and national assembly ballot papers have all been printed.
She further said packing for all ballot papers has also been completed except for national assembly and local government papers.
Ms. Bwalya said the ECZ will this week announce the freight programme for the delivery of ballot papers to Lusaka.
And Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company General Manager Lakshmanan Ganapathy said the packaging for all ballot papers will be completed on Saturday this week.
He said thereafter, the company will start weighing pallets where ballot paper boxes are packed to determine the actual tonnage of the consignment.
There will be a total of 340 pallets weighing approximately 190 tonnes.
Meanwhile, the nine political parties monitoring the printing of the ballot papers here in Dubai have described the process as incident free.
United Party for National Development (UPND) representative, Jones Mulunga, said all the suggestions that the political parties raised during the printing process were satisfactorily addressed by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company.
Mr. Mulunga, who spoke on behalf of eight other political parties, said the process satisfied all stakeholders.
“The impressions so far are that there have not been any major incidences here. Any issues, observations and suggestions that we have given, the ECZ and the company (Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company) have been able to clarify for the satisfaction of everyone else,” Mr. Mulunga said.
He added that, “hopefully we shall get through this process without any issues here. I think it has been good”.
And United People’s Progressive (UPP) party representative, Mwansa Malila, said she was impressed with the way the printing process has been until its completion.
Meanwhile, ECZ Commissioner David Matongo said all stakeholders in the electoral process should ensure that speculations and unwarranted perceptions are reduced even in the heat of the elections.
Mr. Matongo said political parties should exercise temperance in their activities in order to have a credible election.
He further advised that there should be magnanimity in winning and no defiance in losing describing this as the greatest kind of leadership.
The UPND, UPP, Patriotic Front (PF), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), United National Independence Party (UNIP), Democratic Assembly (DA), People’s Alliance for Change (PAC), Rainbow and the Green party have all fielded presidential candidates in this year’s elections.
All the nine political parties have therefore been represented during
the printing process here in Dubai.
Other agencies in ‘team Zambia’ in Dubai are the Zambia Police, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) representing the Church, Islamic Supreme Council of Zambia (ISCZ) representing faith-based organisations, and the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities (ZAPD).
The ballot papers are expected to be delivered to Zambia before July 30th, 2016.
Where has my young man Hichilema been to have allowed the process take off and complete? He had vowed that it would only happen over his dead body.
Where is Edgar on the ballot paper?
Dununa forward.
And yet Hichilema continues to level accusations at ECZ that they are planning to counsel the elections in order to help ECL stay on.
Sometimes to wonder if HH himself believes in some of the ridiculous stuff he says—paranoia at its best!
Now they have received their kickbacks and life goes on!!
OCTOBER 10, 2011. LUSAKA . President Sata has said that Zambia will print its own ballot papers for future elections. He said that the November 24 Magoye and Nakonde parliamentary by-elections will be the last to be conducted on foreign-printed ballots.
President Sata said Zambia cannot continue to print ballot papers in other countries 47 years after independence.
“If it means spending all the coffers to bring in the equipment, we will do it. We will print ballot papers here,” Mr. Sata said.
WINA AZALILA COME AUGUST 11…VIVA HH 2016
HH is an underfive who cannot rule and will never rule our mother Zambia. Let hh just concentrate on making love with Maureen mwanawasa and keep cows. I have repeated this a million times, we don’t want to start seeing Cows defeacating at Mandahill
With the printing done then opposition and ECZ should agree on extra security features for the sake of voters by allowing voters to put extra features on the ballot papers to protect their vote. REMEMBER THE TECHNOLOGY EMBEDDED IN THE BALLOT PAPERS COULD NOT BE DETECTED BY THE PARTY OBSERVERS WHO ARE IT ILLITERATES! HERE WE GO 1. When those papers arrive and on 11/08/16 get sampled ballots from all over the country and keep them away safely without marks for observation the following day as control ballot papers. 2. Allow voters to mark double; one in the space provided and another in the space below the party initials same raw. These features will help when counting and recounting after voting to distinguish the genuine vote from the counterfeit. REMEMBER THE PAPER WILL CONTINUE LOOKING…
These features will help when counting and recounting after voting to distinguish the genuine vote from the counterfeit. REMEMBER THE PAPER WILL CONTINUE LOOKING GENUINE AND YET THE PRE-MARKS FOR PF WILL ONLY SHOW AFTER THE EXPIRY DATE PRE PROGRAMMED TO BE EXPOSED BY 11/08/16. DO THIS AND YOU WILL CATCH THEM EVEN IF THEY FLY FAKE ONES TO THE POLLING STATION.