Zambia's electoral body says not directed to print ballot papers in Dubai

Zambia's electoral body on Monday that it has total responsibility to select where to print ballot papers and no directive was received from the current government.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has come under attack for its proposal to award the printing of ballot papers for the August 11 elections to Alghurair Printing and Publishing LLC of Dubai.

The stakeholders have questioned the rationale behind the electoral body's decision and claimed it was meant to rig the elections in favor of the ruling Patriotic Front.

But Priscilla Isaacs, the director of the electoral body said no one has powers to instruct the commission on where to print ballot papers, adding that the electoral body usually makes independent decisions.

She said the electoral body has already made a decision to print the ballot papers abroad because currently there were no local firms with the capacity to undertake the works.

"The ECZ is independent and therefore does not take instructions from anyone. What kind of instructions are we going to have if we took instructions from everyone because every stakeholder has something to say. All we do is work to ensure that we stick to the provisions of the law," she said in a live interview on state broadcaster, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation.

According to the electoral chief, 13 firms were shortlisted for the tender to supply and deliver the ballot papers and other election materials.

She said the Dubai-based firm was selected out of the 13 firms that applied and that other firms which bid have up to Thursday this week to object to the proposal in accordance with the law.

She said the law was followed diligently before the final decision and that a due diligence and technical evaluation was conducted on the Dubai firm.

"We did our due diligence and we found that this company is credible and does not have any court cases. It has not been sued in any country in any court of law and we are confident it could do the job and that is why we went ahead to recommend it," she added.

Source: XINHUA