Presidential candidates who wish to inspect the printing of presidential ballot papers will be allowed to travel to Greece between July 15-20.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati on Thursday said the commission organized a trip for transparency purposes since the presidential papers will be printed last.
“Presidential candidates who would like to travel to inspect the printing process will be allowed to travel between July 15 and 20 this month to go to Greece to witness the process,” he said.
It has cost IEBC Sh3.2 billion to print the ballot papers for the August polls.
On average, it cost Sh23 inclusive of VAT to print a single ballot paper.
The IEBC Chairman emphasized that there will be no extra ballot papers printed to occasion rigging in the highly contested poll.
Chebukati stated that the commission will not print any extra ballot papers, saying they have only procured 22.1 million ballot papers which is the number of registered voters.
The IEBC boss further revealed that they forwarded 16,100 names for gazettement on June 30, 2022.
He, however, noted that the government printer was facing printing challenges due to the bulkiness of the document.
“The government printer has been having printing challenges because the data includes printing party symbols of the candidates but they should finalize it today,” Chebukati added.
For candidates with active cases in court, IEBC said the printing will be repeated depending on the outcome of the courts.
However, according to IEBC CEO, it would cost the commission extra money.
“In case of any alteration, the ballot papers will be printed again. However, as IEBC, it is our wish that we would not want that to happen because we are running out of time," he added.
