ECN assures elections will take place
The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has allayed fears that the current hiccup with the procurement of ballot papers will impact next month’s elections.
On Monday, the electoral body announced that it had decided to cancel open international bidding for ballot papers for the November elections, allegedly out of fear that the international process might delay ballot delivery.
ECN spokesperson De Wet Siluka yesterday said the internal procurement process has already kicked off.
“The elections will not be impacted; those are statutory dates, they cannot be changed. The decision for the alternative procurement is to ensure ballot papers will be delivered on time. The internal process has started already. We will communicate to the public once a service provider has been identified,” he said.
The deadline for the international bidding process to print ballot papers for the 1 449 569 registered voters was set for 9 October. The decision to cancel the bidding followed a heated debate with political parties last week, who accused the commission of planning to hand-pick a ballot printer. This came after ECN pleaded with parties to be allowed to seek exemption from going through the normal tender process.
One-way street
Following the cancellation, ECN pledged to keep all stakeholders in the loop every step of the way, but some political parties are not convinced that the selection of the service provider will be without influence.
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) national secretary-general Christine Aochamus said when the party met with ECN, she told them that the Public Procurement Act does not give it powers for direct procurement.
“They said they would follow the Act. We do not support direct procurement and if ECN already demonstrated they can take decisions, what is to stop them from just coming back and informing us that this is the decision they have taken? Why bother with a relationship that is a one-way street?” she wanted to know.
jemima@nmh-hub,com.na
On Monday, the electoral body announced that it had decided to cancel open international bidding for ballot papers for the November elections, allegedly out of fear that the international process might delay ballot delivery.
ECN spokesperson De Wet Siluka yesterday said the internal procurement process has already kicked off.
“The elections will not be impacted; those are statutory dates, they cannot be changed. The decision for the alternative procurement is to ensure ballot papers will be delivered on time. The internal process has started already. We will communicate to the public once a service provider has been identified,” he said.
The deadline for the international bidding process to print ballot papers for the 1 449 569 registered voters was set for 9 October. The decision to cancel the bidding followed a heated debate with political parties last week, who accused the commission of planning to hand-pick a ballot printer. This came after ECN pleaded with parties to be allowed to seek exemption from going through the normal tender process.
One-way street
Following the cancellation, ECN pledged to keep all stakeholders in the loop every step of the way, but some political parties are not convinced that the selection of the service provider will be without influence.
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) national secretary-general Christine Aochamus said when the party met with ECN, she told them that the Public Procurement Act does not give it powers for direct procurement.
“They said they would follow the Act. We do not support direct procurement and if ECN already demonstrated they can take decisions, what is to stop them from just coming back and informing us that this is the decision they have taken? Why bother with a relationship that is a one-way street?” she wanted to know.
jemima@nmh-hub,com.na
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