This wrong, we must never run out of ballot papers

Lawrence Ookeditse | Wednesday October 22, 2014 18:42

One of the most fundamental rules of any election is being violated in here. The IEC as the elections management body needs to explain this and explain it urgently. The politicians are saying what they wish to say but we all know of their selfish interests.

The IEC having been given responsibility must account. If there has been any interference they must come out and say so, if no interference then they must explain how this no brainer of an issue came about. This state of affairs constitutes a threat to national security: we are going into perhaps the most contested election since 1994, there have been various allegations and the last thing we need is the result to be contested because some people did not vote.

Look, you know how many voters are registered to vote at every place. The reason you know this is not so you can brag about whether you’ve reached registration targets or not: the real reason is so you are able to then plan for everyone to vote. It really does not require much to get to this.

Let us face it: if you are unable to deliver enough ballot papers for a few hundreds of people, it says you failed to apply yourself. You failed to count 500 ballot papers for 500 voters. One wishes they were in a country where people are actually held accountable for their actions, and omissions. Surely heads must roll.

The IEC has been accorded a budget to print enough ballot papers and it is not exactly rocket science that they should print the correct numbers and extras in case of shortages. This is perhaps a sign that political parties need to be taken along when the IEC goes to procure ballot papers. In some countries the election management body actually transports different party officials to see where the ballot papers are printed so as to clear potential doubts over the process.

This gross negligence from the IEC can easily cast doubts on our elections and bring about bloodshed. The IEC needs to wake up before it is too late for this country. It is when institutions fail that politicians start making excuses for their failure. And we have seen some already assuming the voters that were disenfranchised are known to be sympathetic to their parties-we know they know they are exaggerating but the IEC is giving them the chance to do so.