“For God’s sake we are not printing raffle tickets where you can just look at the sample. These are ballot papers for presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. Mr Mulongoti is a liar, but he must not cheat people,”
These are the words uttered by ECZ director Priscilla Isaacs. Ms Isaacs said that former minister of Works and Supply Mike Mulongoti is not telling the truth by claiming that Government Printers has the capacity to print ballot papers because they managed to print some samples of ballot papers.
Ms Isaacs said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that printing ballot papers could only be done on a machine that had capacity to print and package them in specified numbers of bundles.
Ms Isaac reminded Zambians that all political party representatives were invited to witness the printing of ballot papers in 2001 and spent three nights waiting for the institution to print but it failed.
She said ECZ had asked for a firm with a machine that could print, sort out, arrange and package in booklet form, and the decision was made in consultation with all political stakeholders.
Ms Isaac said she was surprised that Mr Mulongoti was raising issues which he was aware about and urged him to stop misleading the people of Zambia.
“For God’s sake we are not printing raffle tickets where you can just look at the sample. These are ballot papers for presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. Mr Mulongoti is a liar, but he must not cheat people,” she said.
Ms Isaac said machinery at Government Printers lacked components to package and would have required a lot of manual work.
She said the same people opposing ECZ would have been complaining if such a decision was made.
She said information about the lack of capacity at the Government printing department was issued by the firm and Mr Mulongoti when he was minister and not ECZ.
Mrs Isaac said the decision to print ballot papers in South Africa was communicated in a formal meeting with representatives of political parties.
[Times of Zambia]
Mulongoti is a loud mouth for nothing,he just left MMD a few months ago why didnt they print the ballot papers at goverment printer for all those elections when he was in MMD.This man irritates because he says things that lack substance,he is becoming too cheap
The more reason you should be seen to be a serious institution…….madam
PF HAS PICK IT’S A TEAM FOR THE 2011 ELECTIONS.MWAPWA ABWALA SATA
thats why yu isaacs must be serius. We dont want riging this year…. We wont let yu scort free madam together wt mambilima. Mambilima is a bootlicker and we all kno that. Worse enerst sakala whoz pending investigations…..
The MMD government can’t even capitalize Govt PrintersPrinters. Koma ekupwa. Zwa, kuyakuya bebele. Naiwe wine ka Priscilla Mlenga muleila pamo but DONCHI KURIGGING’A.
These chaps are no serious…ZAMBIANS cant we organise s A big PROTEST at their OFFICES?
Let them print wherever they want and we shall tally the total votes cast with number registered voters plus the number of people who voted on that particular day. Could it be that they want to stuck in more votes for RB and that is why they are refusing to have the votes verified by another method. Plse stop taking Zambians for granted.
The question is, How did this same government printers manage to print in the Kaunda times?
coz kaunda used to stand with frogs, now current president has human opponents . u get it!!!!
This whole issue does not make sense to me. We are told “your money and Govn at work” but were does our money go? patching ROADS ONLY?
this is the same money that can sustainably be invested in such machinery. MMD Govern is playing ST+++D political gymnastics. We can buy that equipment and avoid unnecessary spending TAX payers money……… VIVA Mulongoti
But is this the only firm that can print ballot papers in the world? Why didn’t you engange an American company to do a goooooood job? We know Americans are serious with these issues and don’t tell us that it would have been more costly because you have no evidence. Ms Isaacs, please be non-partisan and ensure that no extra ballot papers are printed like you did in 2008. We are alive to the fact that you have already confirmed that election observers would not be allowed to vote where they did not register and this is already a surplus of ballot papers. This is outright robbery. ECZ, be professional and do your work to avoid pushing the country in turmoil. 2011 elections are very special to Zambia because of various factors at play.
Surely K46 Billion ($4m) would get that machinery right!!! isn’t that what they were quoted by the same SA company, can someone clarify please, who negotiated the contract Banda’s son or ECZ ??, will the ballots be serially numbered, how many are being printed? will the printed papers be equal to the number of registered voters or will extra prints be included, last i checked each voter is issued with ONLY one ballot paper if you make a mistake its counted as spoiled, so please no extra papers !!! are we having transparent ballot boxes or not??? why does MMD always refuse transparent boxes?? lord its the same cycle all over again.!!
How ba donch Kubeba you can ignore simple reasoning defeats me totally. Firstly you fail to see that mulongoti is a bloody hypocrite who has not finished his handover and is already condemning decisions he was part of. secondly if govt bought machinery for govt printers at high cost many issues would have been raised by you same people – tender processes, cost benefit factor, and mostly the fact that govt printers could be manupulated by politicians because the management is appointed by politicians. they say a leader is a representative of his followers and from SATA behavior I should not really be suprised by the lack of reasoning of those that follow him
this woman sounds more like a cadre to me than what she is. damn… these elections are not coming as a surprise, are they? we anticipated them and why did they not improve the government printing facilities so they can print ballot papers locally. this whole thing smells Ms Issacs sh1t. ok, what were the samples for, was it not to see if the machines are capable of doing the job. no one expressed concern over the capability of the machines until now. why wait for the last minute ? ECZ is highly compromised and needs to be restructured.
What substance can come out of simple minds like Mulongoti’s.Come 23-09-11 he will be begging for a job from RB or HH.
LoL! My quote of the day…!
Mulongoti is a frustrated chap..no one should ever believe that hungry vulture..we need serious people to rule this country!
Mulongoti is one dull boy who rose from being a cleaner to KAPITAO in late Dawson Lupunga’s shop in Luansya. Listening to whatever he says for just 5 minutes makes you wonder as to how Lupunga could have promoted such a dull character to Kapitao.
Iwe ka Isaacs, DON’T INSULT OUR COMBINED INTELLIGENCE!! Raffle tickets – Ye it seems you are treating this whole exercise that way! REMEBER IT IS TAXPAYERS supplying YOUR DAILY BREAD, not bena RBish, YOU WILL BE HERE AFTER THEY ARE LONG GONE, if you WANT TO WALK WITH HOLES IN YOUR SHOES, CARRY ON!!!
Not just Government Printers by Horizon Printing Press. There two or three printing Companies within Lusaka that I can count on in Zambia which can ably print these ballot papers. The only thing MMD government cannnot do is print extra ballot papers as this information will leak out. This year is different and MMD will have no chance.
WHEN EVER ANYONE MEETS ISAACS, WE SHOULD ASK HER ABOUT HER RAFFLE TICKETS!!!!! She should impose her own house arrest!!!!
The simple truth is that PF would complain no matter who printed the ballot papers. This whole business (including the so-called “issue” of RB’s nationality) are cheap distractions only. If the opposition were serious, even capable, about it’s job of holding government to task, they would have raised these objections long ago – not at the 11th hour after bitching for months to call the elections now.
Truly I despair for the quality of our opposition. If PF is so unhappy with what govt is doing, why are we being fed this nonsense instead of credible alternative policies? Sadly, I think the answer is simple – pick on ways to claim things are “unfair” to justify your expected loss. This democracy deserves so much better – including politicians sometimes willing to blame themselves.
This Priscilla Isaacs’ response just confirmz fearz the oppozition have about the ECZ putting the ruling party in a “comfort zone” of some sort.
Why is every one complaining on this blog unaware or paying a blind eye to the fact that the tender for printing was advertised for 4 weeks in the local media and no Zambian firm tendered. The winning tender was chosen from the tendering companies who qualified and met all the conditions after thorough inspections. The winning bid was less than half of the K46b govt printers need. The winning tender was announced weeks ago so why is there a cry now? Is it that It’s not the job of ECZ to force govt printers or any other company to tender. FTJ printed the papers in Israel and there was no out cry!
this ***** ms isaacs who the hell does she think we are?
My comments er lets just pray to God he is the one who knows what the better tomorrw wiil be
Almost 50 years after independence Zambia cannot print mere ballot papers. What a shame!What a country!
This is like the old story of blaming computers for human incompetence. What is this? This is the 21st Century and we have such cheap arguments??? Or is it the usual Times of Zambia s.h.i.t.e. to buy cheap mileage for the authority? I am gagging – outa here.
#23, your name should change to sewerage consultant. why did this woman(isaacs) who looks like she has just survived a tsunami advertise for tenders when GRZ printers is there. They did not tender coz its was supposed to be automatic. Canceal the tender period rather than waffling about things like you talking to kids. This is your master’s voice
PLEASE BE WARNED!!!!…..THIS TIME AROUND NOBODY WILL STEAL OUR VOTES AND GET AWAY WITH IT!!!!!…..TULI NAIMWE TIGHT!!!!!!!……..MULEKENI SATA ATEKE!!!!
No one needs to steal votes, PF has lost even before starting their campaign. Just shut up, can t u be suprised that they are now shifting their attention to RB’s parents. If they were winning why waste time on a debate like this one??
Protecting the constitution of our motherland. Uutwile???????//
#25 Blue Blood,
I share your disgust, half a century of backwardness!
She should have said “for Gods sake we are not printing bloody raffle tickets.”
just make sure they are free and fair.coz u will not have a job if they are not!
Its like a parent who gets angry when they spend on their own kids on pay day. Spending on Government printers would add value to the economic activity. Why is it that everything Zambian is deemded bad? Do you now understand why Sata resonate with people? Everything is nichekeleko. For as long as someone has a chance to eat part of the K46bn, the best approach is to print in Durban. The sad thing is the way government just imposes decisions; just the arrogance really winds people up. Bane Rwanda and Burundi wars started like this. All Zambia needs is a spark plug; Issacs careful this time.
ECZ is run by cadres
Utter absurdity, she is not even ashamed to mention 2001. 10 F**king years MMD Govt couldn’t install equipment at Govt Printers, what nonsense. That’s why we are a damping ground for SA.
Careful, Zambia may burn this year…
Is it Mulongoti who was works and supply minister and in charge of looking after/capitalising gov printers? If he had done his job knowing elections are this year while he was still in the relevant office. He now insults our inteligence by blaming ECZ for not printing ballot papers at the gov printers. It would have needed the gov printers to be capitalised way back for it to be ready for printing now. That was the time Mlongoti was still minister of works and supply. Now that he’s where he belongs – with PF – “poor finkers”, he wants to look like the inteligent one. His imcompetence has just caught up with him and the best he can do is keep quiet about the whole matter.
I disagree with Ms Isaacs that the Govt Printer or any other local printing houses have no capacity to print ballot papers and sort them out automatically. That is a blue lie with have alot companies which are printing high guality of products. I would agree with her if she stated that the same opposition parties were going to point fingers at MMD/ GRZ if they lost elections and would cry foul that the local printer aided rigging by printing extra balllot for MMD. In short there is no confidence in our local printers so to avoid finger pinting the works had better de done outside the country. I am made to believe that Govt Printer had received some modern press from Chinaor some other source.
sata, nsanda, kabimba, luo, scot, kambwili: surely we expect too much out of these poor failures. running a bus station, failing in marriage, failing to control ur weight, failing to interpret the law and ignorance.
‘Ms Isaac said machinery at Government Printers lacked components to package and would have required a lot of manual work.’
I would probably have been hired to do the packaging nga yakaunga ninapeza!
This is really abusing the Internet. Insults here, threats there. You self-appointed spokespersons for Zambians. What nonsense is this? You think you bully the ECZ? You’re in for a rude shock. Not long ago you were so sure of victory. Now, it’s RB does qualify to stand, the ballot printer is corrupt… Is it that you have smelt defeat already? Oh, such poor souls. Just lose with dignity. You can all go ahead and protest, you’ll be contained. Having access to the Net doesn’t make your opinion everybody’s
Great job madam Isaac. Dare not be distructed by useless nonentities like small boy Mike. Infact the ka boy is busy posing in lusaka west in a Grz landcruiser. He has absolutely no sense of shame. Zero!
Mission Press in Ndola has the capacity to print those ballot papers but since its a Catholic owned institution, am very positive that the govt cant make that attempt to give the contract to the Catholics.
#28 tony blair as you call yourself, call me what you want but here are some facts you and many others are not taking into consideration which in fact ECZ did. Some free education for you. An educated debate is healthy but not insults:
Zambia National Tender Board Act (Cap 394)
CHAPTER 394 THE ZAMBIA NATIONAL TENDER BOARD ACT
3. There is hereby established the Zambia National Tender Board which shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, capable of suing and of being sued in its corporate name, and with power, subject to the provisions of this Act, to do all such acts and things as a body corporate may do by law.
cont,,,,5. (1) The functions of the Central Tender Committee shall be to examine and authorise all procurement of goods, works and services for both Government and parastatal bodies whose value is above the limits authorised in these regulations for tender committees established by regulation 7, 11 or 16.
The act further states that (2) Any person who knowingly contravenes the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding twelve thousand five hundred penalty units or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or to both.
Disband Government Printers then! What are they there for if they can no perform such tasks?
In April 2011 the grz printers itself said: ‘And speaking during the tour, Government Printers captain Joseph Simbeye told the minister that the printing department was at the moment unable to print ballot papers in colour until one of the new machines is installed with the right software.’
tapaba ichisuma pachalo..tu printeko ku Sa ati NO!…yaba
Mulongoti is as irritating as a louse, and he has become worse now.
In addition, opposition parties donot have faith in the grz printers. E.g in the petition for 2001 they claimed that extra papers had been printed to favour MMD; 16 May 2003:
‘A WITNESS yesterday told the Supreme Court that the Electoral Commission of Zambia directed Government Printers to print excess presidential ballot papers without the knowledge of the contesting political parties during the December 27 2001 elections. Lusaka district secretary told the court that extra presidential ballot papers were printed for most of the constituencies on the Copperbelt and Luapula provinces’
So one can argue that whatever the ECZ was going to do would not have been good enough.
The reason is simple. We are a country of losers with very low standards hence we do not find any shame in importing tomatoes from RSA nearly 50 yrs after independence and we keep recycling polititians.
In short this woman is saying there is nothing Zambia can come up with or manufacture because Zambia has no capacity to do anything despite being middle income at this era. what a shame to our country and its leaders
For f*ck sake Ms Isaac that’s not a proper way to answer a national leader and former minister. Madam you are presenting all known signs of a hard core MMD cadre, that said how you going to run fair and free elections when you’re disrespecting opposition leaders..
Print lotto tickets in South Africa too ,better yet in Lububashi,Matero is not just doing it right
“For God’s sake we are not printing raffle tickets where you can just look at the sample. These are ballot papers for presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. Mr Mulongoti is a liar, but he must not cheat people,” she said.
I love that, the lady has got sting in her, just what you need to get a message through to the likes of Mulongoti.
Mulongoti and many others have no shame,I think.
Ms Isaacs is offside. There is something fishy going on here!!
Can some one from the stealing party MMD, pleas explain what development MMD can bring if after 20 years they still cant print ballot papers in Zambia ???. Afetr 20 yrs and billions of dollars only shopright and more than 80% unemployed
This is why I say our government lacks priorities. Instead of telling their all-weather friends, the Chinese, to lend capacity to Government Printers, you are accepting to have them build football stadia. Surely, 47 years after independence Ms Isaacs can venomously say Government Printers has no capacity to print ballot papers. Then what can they print? Jelita and Mulenga books. This is preposterous and shameful. No wonder Nathan Nyirenda asked…Bushe mano aya chepa, nangu ninkanda iya fita?
Only “yes Bwana” mentality Nigge.rs would proudly proclaim that after 20 yrs of MMD we are still unable to print ballot papers in zambia. You are shamfull, zambia is the laughing stock of the world. That is why in your minds it is ok to import everything because we have copper and roads are being patched. Ape reasoning.