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Pamela Shumba Chronicle Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has returned ballot papers for special voting to their respective provinces, awaiting counting after the harmonised elections on Wednesday. The electoral body also sent ballot papers to Bulawayo, Midlands, Matabeleland North and South Provinces yesterday.
The ballot papers for special voting were taken to Harare last week for sorting according to wards and constituencies.
In Bulawayo, the ballot papers were yesterday handed over to Zec officials at the province’s command centre in the council chambers before being taken to the Bulawayo District command centre at Eveline High School under police guard.
Present during the handover of the ballot boxes were senior officials from the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, candidates and election agents from different parties and constituencies.
In the two labelled ballot boxes were 36 packets of ballot papers collected from 12 wards in the province’s constituencies.
The boxes were sealed with strap seals with serial numbers and padlocks.
The Bulawayo provincial elections officer, Mr Innocent Ncube, said the two boxes would be kept at the district command centre until 26 July.
“The boxes arrived at the provincial command centre at 10.30am in the company of two police officers, two election agents, one from Zanu-PF and one from MDC-T and a driver from Zec.
“The boxes are sealed on the sides and on the top with strap seals and they will remain like this until 26 July when they would be taken to their respective constituencies by wards elections officers. We did not open the boxes and those who are receiving them are not allowed to open them.
They will be kept safely by the police and election agents are allowed to keep vigil for as long as they want but there is a certain distance that they must maintain,” said Mr Ncube.
The ballot papers to be used on 31 July were taken to Donnington Police Station for safekeeping.
“We are taking the ballot papers to Donnington Police Station for safekeeping until the time when they would be distributed to the wards.
“Candidates, election agents and candidates are also allowed to visit and see the ballot papers,” said Mr Ncube.
Meanwhile, Mr Ncube said the province completed its two-day training for more than 400 presiding officers, wards elections officers and their deputies at the Large City Hall.
“We have trained 392 presiding officers, 29 wards elections officers and 58 deputy wards election officers. We also trained chief election officers and senior police officers in preparation for the elections.
“On Friday and Saturday, there will be training of polling officers at all the constituency training centres in the province. Each of the 12 constituencies have between two and three training centres,” said Mr Ncube.
He said the deployment of the officers and the collection of the electoral material to the polling stations would be done on Sunday.
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derick.khumalo