EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama
Ballot papers for the 2021 General Elections will be printed by foreign firms, the Electoral Commission (EC) has announced.
The firms that have won the lucrative contract are; Uniprint (South Africa), Tall Security Print Ltd (UK), United Printing and Publishing Firm (Abu Dhabi) and Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing LLC (Dubai) and Adare Sec Ltd (UK.
According to a press statement issued by the EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama, the firms will be responsible with the printing of ballot papers for Presidential and Directly-elected Member of Parliament, District Woman Representatives to Parliament, District or City Woman Councilors, Sub-county/Town/Municipal Division Woman Councilors and others.
The other ballot papers to be printed are for District or City Chairpersons, District or City Directly-elected councilors, Municipality Directly-elected Councilors, Special Interest Groups at District, Municipality and Sub-County level and others.
“The Electoral Commission has officially communicated to political parties and candidates participating in the elections, inviting them to nominate official agents for accreditation, to travel to the above countries and observe the printing, packing and delivery of these critical electoral materials, at their own cost,” says Justice Byabakama.
The move by the Electoral Commission follows queries by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) which last month canceled the award of tenders to some foreign firms to print ballot papers.
Earlier PPDA directed the Electoral Commission to re-evaluate bids for local firms including Graphics Systems Ltd, Picfare Industries Ltd, Inline Print Services and New Vision-Hi-tech JV which had been reportedly sidelines in the Shillings 185 billion award.
There was also a complaint that the evaluation of firms was not properly conducted in a number of areas saying that the firms were unfairly eliminated on grounds that they lacked evidence of successful completion of three contracts of a similar nature and complexity.
However, EC Chairperson Byabakama defended the move to award the contract to foreign firms saying that the matter was not a mere sentimental process but rather a question of capacity.
“Our technical team realized that there were shortcomings in the technical competences of our local printers, particularly in the areas of ballot printing,” Byabakama told journalists recently.
He added: “Given the high numbers and the high valuables and the time element in this COVID-19, we said let printing tender be awarded to foreign entities.”
