The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has gazetted new election regulations meant to speed up the release of results as it prepares for the June 27 presidential run-off.
According to Statutory Instrument 82A of 2008 published in Wednesday's Extraordinary Government Gazette, V11 and V23 forms will now be signed by the presiding and ward election officers respectively in the presence of candidates or their election agents.
Candidates or their election agents will also sign the forms as witnesses and this will speed up the release of results because all the concerned parties would sign after agreeing to the information on the forms.
The forms contain the number of votes garnered by candidates, serial numbers of ballot papers and the number of ballot papers.
"We have amended the V11 forms for the purpose of including witnesses. In the past, a presiding officer would sign the forms alone. We want the election agents to fully witness and endorse their signatures at the polling stations," said ZEC deputy chief elections officer (operations) Utloile Silaigwana, when asked to clarify the regulations.
"We want them (election agents) to participate in a way even though the presiding officer remains in charge," explained Silaigwana.
V11 forms are signed at the polling station while V23 are dealt with at the ward level.
Silaigwana said changes to the V23 forms were made to make the muser-friendly. Silaigwana said preparations for the run-off were proceeding well with the commission holding training workshops for provincial election officers and their deputies last week.
"The first workshop was held from May 22-26 in Harare. We were looking at areas that were problematic in the March harmonized elections. We covered a number of topics like the administration and management of elections, polling stations and results. We also enlightened our officers on these new amendments to the V11 and V23 forms," he said.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article