THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) says it will avail required information on ballot papers tomorrow after opposition parties complained about the secrecy surrounding their procurement and printing.
The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has already filed an urgent application to compel Zec to disclose the company that printed the ballot papers.
Addressing election observers on Wednesday, Zec chairperson Priscilla Chigumba, however, said information on the matter would be released “on or about August 19”.
“Zec will print relevant information as articulated in the Electoral Act which is to do with the exact quantity of the ballot paper that was procured where, when and we will also publish the serial numbers relating to ballot papers which will be dispatched to the polling stations,” Chigumba said.
“All of our ballot papers are serialised which can be tracked. We will be asking all of our presiding officers to account for each.”
Zimbabwe Election Support Network chairperson, Andrew Makoni, however, said it was a little too late with elections a few days away.
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“In the previous elections, there was much publicity on the procurement and design of the ballot papers before they were even printed. We saw specimens of the ballot papers in the media,” Makoni said.
Election Resource Centre legal and advocacy officer Takunda Tsunga said: “The commission ought to have ensured political party participation before the printing of the ballot and not after the fact.”
Zimbabwe Election and Advocacy Trust executive director Ignatius Sadziwa said there must be transparency in the printing of ballots.
“Furthermore, we note that the alphabetical sequence used by Zec on presidential candidates is tilted to favour a certain candidate,” Sadziwa said.
Yesterday, High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi said the case in which the CCC is demanding information on ballot papers would be heard on August 21 if the opposition party is not happy with the information that Zec supplies.
CCC was being represented by Advocate Thabani Mpofu and Zec by Tawanda Kanengoni.
In its application, CCC said it was entitled to the information in terms of the Electoral Act.
“Given, however, that there has already been a violation of the law, it is important that the court affords relief that ensures that respondents do not by their conduct, benefit rival political parties in breach of the Constitution,” CCC submitted.
“That way, we would be put in a position in which we are able to secure our rights. For that reason, we pray for relief bearing on the provision of serial numbers as that would help make the entire process verifiable.”