Cardboard ballot boxes to be used in polls

Cardboard ballot boxes to be used in polls

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By Lebo Nkatazo

ZIMBABWE will use cardboard ballot boxes in key elections next month as a result of a critical shortage of translucent boxes, the country’s electoral commission said this week.

A pamphlet distributed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), detailing changes to the polling process, raised the prospect that cardboard boxes will be used for the March 29 elections.

The ZEC also said in place of the usual indelible ink used in past elections to mark voters who have already cast their ballots, marker pens with indelible ink would be used instead.

The marker pens were at the centre of fraud allegations in Afghanistan's elections in 2004 when some candidates maintained that many people cast their vote more than once after removing the supposedly indelible ink marks from their fingers.

"Changes in the polling process -- assistance of blind people by the presiding officer and ZRP (Zimbabwe Republic Police) officer. The small finger will be marked. Translucent boxes will be used. Card board boxes will also be used," read part of a ZEC pamphlet.

ZEC chairman George Chiweshe, a retired military officer appointed by President Robert Mugabe, recently revealed that they were yet to take delivery of all election material – including translucent boxes and ink.

Opposition parties have long insisted on transparent boxes, amid claims of ballot box stuffing by President Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party.

The failure by the ZEC to secure translucent boxes could be the battleground of any post-election dispute.

The ZEC, in the same pamphlet, also listed “assisted voters”. Apart from the blind, the ZEC said the illiterate; the physically handicapped; the elderly and the sick also fall under the category of assisted voters.

The ZEC added: "Polling stations will open at 7am and close at 7pm. All those in the queue by 7pm are allowed to cast their votes. Acetone and indelible finger marking pen will be used in place of indelible ink."

State media reported Tuesday that the ZEC had set up a National Logistics Committee to mobilise resources for the poll. The committee comprises officials from ZEC, the Public Service Commission, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, the District Development Fund, the Air Force of Zimbabwe and CMED – a government department responsible for maintaining government vehicles.

Zimbabweans vote in presidential, parliamentary, senate and local government elections on March 29 – the first time the elections have been held jointly. The harmonised elections are already presenting logistical challenges for the ZEC, with opposition parties and civil society groups demanding that elections be postponed.

Last week, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) said the situation was not ideal for elections next month.

But ZEC officials insist they are ready, as they have been "preparing for over a year".

ZEC spokesperson, Shupikai Mashereni, said: "ZEC now has all the logistics required for the elections...We did not start preparing for the elections this year. Remember, we are employed full-time and our job is to prepare for and run elections. So what do you think we have been doing all along?"
The ZEC has said it will set up 11 000 polling stations countrywide for the harmonised elections.

Noel Kututwa, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), an independent election monitoring group, said: "11 000 polling stations may not be enough to allow all voters to exercise their right to vote within a reasonable time in this election.”

He added: "These harmonised elections are the first time that Zimbabwe will be holding four elections at the same time. This has never been done before. I would have expected that the polling stations would have been doubled to take into account the fact that each voter will be given four ballot papers to cast. Just the time that it will take to go through four ballot papers will unduly lengthen the voting process and it would have been preferable to increase the number of polling stations."

Zimbabwe has 5.5 million registered voters.
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