Zimbabwe opposition is right – ZEC must disclose who is printing ballot papers for the elections

Legality of Direct Procurement

ZEC has cited section 33(2)(b) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act which allows direct procurement for technical reasons the contract can be performed by a particular supplier and the is no reasonable alternative.    If this they use this method the Public Procurement Act section 30 says where this method is used the procuring entity [ZEC] must include in the record of the procurement a written justification of the decision including the ground for the decision.  Further section 69(3) of the Act says that the procuring entity [ZEC] must on request must permit any person to inspect the procurement record and make copies of any documents in the record.  It must be added that this ties in with ZEC’s general constitutional duty to be transparent.

Outcry by Political Parties

This secrecy over which supplier is printing ballot papers has fed into the Opposition’s the lack of trust in ZEC.

As stated in the first paragraph, section 52A of the Electoral Act states that the Commission shall without delay provide the following information to all political parties and candidates contesting an election, and to all observers (a) where and by whom the ballot papers for the election have been or are being printed; and (b) the total number of ballot papers that have been printed for the election; and (c) the number of ballot papers that have been distributed to each polling station.  And in addition one the Electoral Amendment Bill becomes law ensure that “the number of ballot papers printed for any election does not exceed by more than ten per centum the number of registered voters eligible to vote in the election.” 

This means that eventually ZEC will have to divulge these details.

But there is no legitimate reason why ZEC should not reveal now the name of the printers selected.  There is also nothing in the law that prevents ZEC from allowing a few independent observers to monitor the printing.  This would go a long way to establishing trust with political parties and the general public.

Braille Ballot Papers?

ZEC have ruled out providing Braille ballot papers for this election.  They have said they would have to know how many people read Braille at the time of their registering in the BVR process.  At the moment ZEC does not know how many Braille papers   would have to be printed and to which polling stations to deliver them.  The ZEC chairperson has said they would look into provision of Braille ballot papers for the next election.  

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