At least 92 pallets of presidential ballots papers arrived in the country yesterday from Dubai where they were printed ahead of the August 8 General Election.
The presidential ballots were for counties number one to 30, from Mombasa to Baringo. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said all the ballot papers are expected in the country today through chartered cargo flights. The ballot papers will be in 416,360 booklets and will include one per cent provision in case of spoilt votes.
Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing LLC, that was awarded the tender to print the ballot papers concluded printing them on Thursday last week to enable it bind and package for delivery yesterday and today.
The firm indicated that the dispatch of the papers from factory was done on Saturday and Sunday after production of the papers commenced at 11pm on July 20.
Last week, commissioners Roselyn Akombe and Ambassador Paul Kurgat, who led a team of representatives of the media, Registrar of Political Parties, representatives of various presidential candidates and inter-religious council to Dubai to observe how the printing was going on said that they were happy with the progress as 90 per cent of the work had already been completed.
Security features Akombe said once all the ballot papers have arrived in the country, distribution of the ballot papers in far-flung areas would commence on Friday.
The areas targeted include Mandera, Wajir, Tana River, Garissa and Lamu where the commission said the ballot papers will be airlifted because of the prevailing security situation.
The printing started last week after the Appeals Court dismissed a case by the Opposition which was opposed to the tender being awarded to Al Ghurair.
Already, ballot papers for Governor, Women’s Representative and Senate elections have arrived in the country, most of them touching base at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on July18. Ballot papers have been printed for each of the 19.6 million voters, with about 1.2 million more printed above the number of registered voters.
The materials also contain special marks that can only be seen in ultraviolent light and serialised to guard against irregular use in polling centres other than those they are meant for. -PD
