Presidential ballot papers to be printed by July 18

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The electoral agency Sunday said that ballot papers for all elective seats except for the President had already started to be printed, 42 days to the General Election.

Those for the presidential elections will be printed from July 18.

The pronouncement comes just a day before the Raila Odinga-led Nasa, which has asked the court to cancel the Sh2.5 billion tender to Dubai-based Al-Ghurair, argues before a three-judge Bench.

Chief Justice David Maraga on Friday appointed High Court judges Joel Ngugi, George Odunga and John Mativo to hear the case tomorrow.

“Given the urgency of this matter, their Lordships are hereby authorised to sit beyond working hours, if necessary,” said the CJ.

Yesterday, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said that the Dubai-based firm had started printing the ballot papers.

“We have approved ballot proofs for most of the candidates and have started printing the ballot papers,” Mr Chebukati said at the close of a three-day training of 850 county and constituency returning officers and their deputies at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi.

He said that the trained officers will now cascade their skills to the 360,000 people the commission is seeking to act as polling clerks, presiding officers, voter education trainers and ICT officials on temporary basis.

More than 900,000 had applied for the jobs, he noted.

The chairman further said the commission had sent the final list of candidates who will be on the ballot in August 8 to the Government Printer to be gazetted. “It is ready and it should be coming out as a special notice of the Kenya Gazette soon,” he said.

He added that the ballot papers for those with pending disputes in courts have been put on hold.

Nasa has asked the High Court to stop the ballot paper tender. “The applicant avers that had the respondent (IEBC) involved it and other stakeholders in its decision-making, it would not have arrived at the decision that it did, taking into consideration the grave concerns and perceptions held by the applicant, regarding the interested party’s integrity and impartiality in the electoral process,” Nasa has said in court papers.

On Friday, Justice Odunga, who referred the matter to the CJ, declined to stop the execution of the tender but directed parties to file their court papers ahead of the hearing tomorrow.

Source: Daily Nation