The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has confirmed that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) Fidelity Printers was responsible for printing the ballot papers for the upcoming national election.
The contract was awarded to Minting and Printing Company of Zimbabwe (MPCZ) a unit of Fidelity Printers.
In the 2018 elections, Fidelity Printers also printed presidential and parliamentary ballot papers, while a government business Printflow printed council election ballots.
ZEC has been under fire for printing ballot papers without the knowledge of participating political parties, prompting the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to file an urgent application with the Electoral Court on Wednesday seeking an order compelling the body to release information relating to ballot paper printing.
According to ZEC Chief Elections Officer Utiloile Silaigwana, a total of 21 087 000 ballot papers were printed, comprising presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections.
The number of registered voters for this year’s elections is 6 623 511 voters while ZEC said it has recruited about 150 000 electoral officers to run the election.
An extra 503 089 ballots have also been printed as a contingency to account for spillage and damage, which is about seven percent of total ballots within the 10 percent allowed by Section 52 of the Electoral Act.
“Minting and Printing Company of Zimbabwe (MPCZ) located at Number 1, George Drive Msasa, Harare was given the mandate to print all ballot papers to be used for the 2023 harmonised elections.
A total of 7 126 600 presidential ballot papers were printed, 7 098 750 National assembly ballot papers and 6 861 650 local authority papers were printed for the conduct of elections on August 23, 2023,” read a notice flighted by ZEC Chief Elections Officer.
The total ballot papers for the presidential, National Assembly and Local authority are summarised below: INSERT GRAPH
In 2018, ZEC printed 6 150 950 presidential ballots and the same number for parliamentary elections. Some 5 036 250 local authority ballots were printed then.
This year there is a difference in the number of printed ballots for the presidential, Parliament and council elections because the Gutu West parliamentary election was postponed while Zanu PF won uncontested in 91 council seats.
“The number of ballot papers printed for each of the three elections is different because with respect to the National Assembly election, an independent candidate for Gutu West National Assembly Constituency passed away and the election will be conducted on a later date,” Silaigwana said.
“With respect to the local authority election, no election will be held in 91 wards because the candidates for those wards were returned unopposed while four candidates passed away and the ward elections will be conducted at a later date.”
The Chief Elections Officer, said the number of ballot printed ballots allocated to each province for distribution to polling stations in that province is specified in the schedule.
ZEC calculated a three percent contingency for each polling station as specified in the sixth column.
However, the ballot papers were printed in books of 50 each hence the total actual ballot papers printed as specified in the seventh column.
ZEC has also published the list of 12,374 polling stations distributed as follows: Midlands – 1 667; Manicaland – 1 623; Harare – 1 559; Mashonaland West – 1507; Mashonaland East – 1 420; Masvingo – 1 416; Mashonaland Central – 1 107; Matabeleland North – 920; Matabeleland South – 721 and Bulawayo – 434.
