IEBC running out of time Chiloba tells opposition

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chief Executive Officer, Ezra Chiloba, says that the electoral body is out of time and cannot cancel the ballot papers printing tender awarded to Al Ghurair firm as demanded by the Opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) leader, Raila Odinga, and the Clergy.

He reinforced that the claims made by the NASA flag bearer were political and out of question as far as his office is concerned.

“Its already late, we are trying to recover the loss of time. If we are to have elections this year, we must proceed with the matter as we have proceeded. Issues affecting this tender are political. No one has shown us impropriety in the tender,” Chiloba said.

Speaking during an interview on NTV Tuesday, June 20, Chiloba said that the decision reached by the IEBC was at the interest of the state and the constitution. The IEBC boss added that his office had given sufficient time to all interested parties to raise their petition.

“We have never closed the door in terms of dialogue to anyone. Since February this year, we have been having discussions with different stakeholders. We are open but we must also be pragmative. We must have elections come August as per the constitution,” he added.

The CEO said that his office was determined in terms of logistics such as printing of ballot papers and gazetting the list of candidates. He stressed that the first delivery of ballot papers will be effected by July 25 and the printing starts this week.

Concerning the tender, he said that the Dubai-based firm was the best since it met all the expectations of the IEBC in terms of capacity and logistics.