ONLY stamped ballot papers are valid – IEBC now says

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) now says that ONLY stamped ballot papers will be treated as valid during counting of votes in Tuesday’s polls.

In a memo to all returning officers, IEBC Chief Executive Officer, Ezra Chiloba, has retracted his previous stance, directing all the electoral officials to invalidate unstamped ballot papers.

On Saturday, August 6, IEBC CEO had written to all poll officials to validate and count unstamped ballot papers which are correctly marked by voters.

Chiloba has further directed returning officers to communicate the latest decision to all presiding officers.

“My memo of 3^rd August, 2017 which was inadvertently sent is hereby revoked,” read the memo from Chiloba.

Chiloba had said that validating unstamped ballot papers would prevent the commission from penalizing voters on mistakes by IEBC but now has insisted that only stamped papers will be counted.