MMD campaign committee chairman for media, Chibeza Mfune said political parties contesting the October 30 presidential election and stakeholders yesterday resolved that the 600,000 ballot papers would not be distributed to the districts.
Mr Mfune said in an interview yesterday that the resolution was passed during a meeting at ECZ offices attended by all the parties involved in the election.
He said the extra ballot papers would only be distributed to the district when need arises and in the presence of representatives of all the presidential candidates.
That issue has been put to rest. It is good for every party. We (MMD) were also concerned, he said.
He said it was not in the interest of democracy for people to go to the polls when there were issues which were unresolved.
And ZANIS reports that Patriotic front (PF) secretary general Edward Mumbi said the ECZ did not consult the stakeholders for printing extra ballot papers hence they resolved to meet and resolve how the issue should be handled.
Mr Mumbi said this after a lengthy meeting with representatives of the four political parties to resolve the issue of the extra ballot papers with the ECZ chairperson Florence Mumbi in Lusaka yesterday.
Mr Mumbi noted that the stakeholders were insecure with the procurement of extra ballot papers and therefore resolved not to move the extra ballot papers from Lusaka to the districts.
He further noted that the four political parties agreed that extra ballot papers be kept at ECZ and that when need arose, they would be sent in the required numbers to the affected polling stations.
Mr Mumbi noted that the ECZ has chartered a Zambia Air Force (ZAF) plane that would be on standby to load the ballot papers to the affected polling station if such an event occured during the election. – Times of Zambia