Opposition politicians yesterday delayed the process of distributing ballot papers and other election materials from Lilongwe to other districts because they were busy investigating reports that the DPP has acquired extra ballots for rigging.
But the said ballots turned out to be templates for the blind, materials that would aid the blind on how to elect the president and MP in next Tuesday's polls.
The Electoral Commission EC had bought the 4,000 templates for presidential polls and another 6,000 for parliamentary polls, which arrived Tuesday afternoon at Kamuzu International Airport {Kia}, forcing the opposition to think DPP had printed extra papers for rigging.
Some private radio Stations Tuesday night announced the issue as a news item.
But one of the election observers, who was at the airport Wycliff Masoo and is director of Research and Documentations for Malawi Human Rights Commission {MHRC}, said in an interview his organization had verified that no extra ballots landed at Kia.
" We came here after hearing that another consignment of ballot papers had landed but when we arrived, we verified and discovered that these were items for the blind," he said.
MCP Director of Elections Joseph Njobvuyalema said in a separate interview the party had also verified and confirmed that the cargo for the commission was indeed templates for the blind and not ballots for the DPP.
"We were full of suspicion and we were concerned about this, MCP is a major stakeholder in the elections, therefore, the commission should always inform us of what is happening.
" They did not tell us that the templates for the blind were coming on Tuesday hence this mix up" said Njobvuyalema.
He said EC has always told them every stage of the electoral process, including procurement and printing of ballot papers but they were surprised the commission did not inform them about the coming in of the templates, which people mistook for ballots.
"Any future transactions should be transparent. The situation interms of election is excessively delicate. They should be exceptionally transparent as we get to May 19, until we get the votes, until we announce the results," he said.
Damasio Shuma, a representative of the ruling DPP, said his party was surprised with the reports of extra ballots.
He said although EC did not inform DPP about the coming of the templates, the party officials were not suspicious because they have got all the trust in the electoral body.
Chief Elections Officer David Bandawe said the commission was a transparent organization and was surprised by the allegations of extra ballot papers for the DPP.
"We do our things transparently, but we thought the coming of the templates was not an issue that we could even tell the parties, Sometimes we should work on trust," he urged.
He said each center would get two templates for the blind, one each for presidential and parliamentary elections.
After the wrangles were over, the distribution of ballot papers started in earnest at around midday yesterday with military and government trucks ferrying the materials to districts.
The politicians were satisfied with the security at the warehouse because the seals put on the doors last Wednesday were intact and the room was not tampered with.
Source: Daily Times, 14 May 2009
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