Dear Editor,
All voters need to know that their votes will not count if their ballot papers are not properly stamped by the presiding officer. Voters should note the following:
1. You are really voting for two elections – the General Election and the Regional Election. You will be given a ballot paper that is divided by a perforated line into a top section and a bottom section. You have to put a mark for your party on the top part for the General Election, and another mark on the bottom part for the Regional Election.
2. Before the presiding officer gives you a ballot paper, he has to stamp the back of the ballot paper twice – once behind the top section for the General Election, and once behind the bottom section for the Regional Election. If your ballot paper is stamped at the front, your ballot will be rejected.
3. If the presiding officer gives you a ballot paper that is not stamped at the top and bottom at the back of the ballot paper, you should return it and insist that you get a properly stamped one.
Party agents and observers should therefore check closely that every ballot paper is correctly stamped. Party agents also need to know that a ballot that is marked with a tick instead of an X is valid. If a mark is placed on a party’s symbol instead of in the box provided, that is also valid. Or if part of an X or tick extends outside the box provided, that is valid as well. Although I understand presiding officers are much better trained for this election, party agents should know that as long as the voter signifies his intention by whatever mark he makes, the vote should be ruled as valid.
Finally I would like to share GECOM’s concern about observers who might want to conduct exit polls. This can have dangerous repercussions if the persons doing the exit polls have no previous experience in this exercise, and especially if the demographics of the country are not accurately reflected in the design of their methodology.
However, observers are supposed to have signed a protocol that forbids them from announcing the final results.
You should therefore not accept any pronouncement on the results unless it comes from GECOM.
GECOM also should remind everyone of the law that states that within a radius of 200 yards of a polling station, no person should annoy, molest or interfere with a person about to vote, or who has just voted.
Yours faithfully,
Clairmont Lye
Ex-Project Director
Electoral Assistance Bureau