Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) executive officer Ezra Chiloba maintains that 2017 elections will be conducted manually despite the ‘misinterpretation’ from a number of stakeholders.
The opposition team is at loggerheads with government over the system of voting, following the controversial amendment of the election law in which the government supported a manual backup.
In his submission before the Senate’s Legal Committee, Chiloba said voting will still be done on a manual ballot paper with a subsequent electronic transmission.
“Essentially, our voting system is still manual because people have to mark their ballot papers which will be also counted manually. By default, it means we are still embracing the manual system,” he said.
“We do not have capacity to allow people vote digitally at the moment. What we are requesting, is that we need a manual backup during transmission that will assist in the event that online transmission fails,” he added.
The two political divides are engaged in a fierce debate on whether or not to allow IEBC use a manual backup during 2017 elections.