ANT against printing ballot papers in Uganda

Oct 29, 2020

Ballot papers for the 2016 elections were printed in South Africa by Ms Paarl Media of South Africa, which won the tender to print the key voting material.

POLITICS 2021 ELECTIONS

KAMPALA - The Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) headed by former army commander, Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu will protest any plans to print ballot papers inside Uganda, an official of the party has said.

ANT's head of Electoral Affairs Dan Mugarura said his party is not satisfied with the level of integrity in the Government and fears some ballot papers may end up in the wrong hands if they were to be printed locally.

Dan Mugarura(left) the chairman electoral commission, Alliance for National Transformation(ANT) looks on as Wilberforce Seryazi the spokesperson displays a verification certificate to journalists during a press conference at the Alliance for National Transformation headquarters on October 29, 2020. (Photo by Nancy Nanyonga)

"To ensure that we get ballots that are not forgeable, we are of the view that they are printed outside the country," Mugarura said.

"We fear that candidates with whom we are contesting may have links to those companies. As such, we will not be happy if ballots were printed here."

Ballot papers for the 2016 elections were printed in South Africa by Ms Paarl Media of South Africa, which won the tender to print the key voting material for presidential, parliamentary and district woman councillors. However, there have been reports of a local firm doing the work here in a bid to save money.

Uganda has a number of local printing firms, with the biggest being UPPC — a state corporation established by the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation Act (Cap.330 of the Laws of the Republic of Uganda).

Dan Mugarura looks on as Wilberforce Seryazi addresses journalists during a press conference at the Alliance for National Transformation headquarters on October 29, 2020. (Photo by Nancy Nanyonga)

UPPC currently handles both governmental and private sector printing and publishing.

On June 11, 2016, UPPC entered into a contract with a Germany firm, Veridos Identity Solutions GmbH and bided for a multibillion security printing deal to print Ugandan currency. They controversially won the tender after beating De La Rue International Ltd and Muhlberger GmbH and Co. KG, who submitted their bid jointly with Hungarian Banknote Printing Shareholding Company.