19 July 2011
NATIONAL Revolution Party (NRP) has endorsed the decision by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to award the tender for printing of ballot paper booklets and nomination forms for this year’s tripartite elections to Universal Print Group (Pty) limited of Durban in South Africa.
And the United Party for National Development (UPND) Spokesperson Charles Kakoma has called for increased political party stakeholders to be deployed in South Africa to monitor printing of the ballot papers for transparency.
NRP leader Cosmo Mumba said his party was impressed with ECZ’s decision for ballot papers to be printed in South Africa and that this would remove suspicions and tempering of ballot papers if they were printed locally.
Speaking in separate interviews yesterday, Dr Mumba said, NRP sat on the ECZ liaison committee and the decision made to print ballot papers in South Africa was done through various consultations.
“As NRP, we fully endorse the decision made by ECZ. It is a good decision to award the tender to a foreign company because that will remove suspicions of tempering with the documents if there are to be printed locally “he said
Dr Mumba said there was nothing sinister for a foreign company to print ballot papers because printing of the documents locally could raise worries that some people attempted to access the ballot papers.
He said Universal Print Group should go ahead and what was needed, was for enhanced transparency during counting, shipping and voting. He also commended the Government for trying to put effective mechanisms by increasing the number of police officers being trained to ensure there was adequate law and order during elections.
“I would like to commend Home Affairs Minister Mkhondo Lungu and Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde for working hard to ensure more police officers are trained to ensure people have enough security during campaign and voting days,” he said
Dr Mumba said no political party should abrogate laws hence need for the police officers and security wings to ensure peaceful and transparent elections were upheld.
And UPND spokesperson Mr Kakoma called for increased number of political party stakeholders to be deployed in South Africa to monitor printing of the ballot papers.
He said two or more monitors from each political party were needed to work closely with other stakeholders to monitor printing of ballot papers. “Printing of ballot papers takes long hours. So, there is need for at least two members from each party so that if one gets tired the other takes over to monitor the printing process. What we don’t want is to have suspicions of extra ballot papers printed,” he said
He, however, said printing of ballot papers outside the country would not help increase Zambia’s economy saying printing locally could have saved colossal resources used and also remove doubts on printing of extra ballot papers.
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