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Voting faces hitches in Mzimba, Mzuzu City

 

Presiding officers in Mzimba and Mzuzu City struggled to with the electronic voting system, leading to delays in transmitting election results of the May 21 Tripartite Elections.

By 5:30pm yesterday, most centres had not done half of the results transmission due to irregularities arising from the presiding officers handling of paperwork.

Mzimba district commissioner (DC) Thomas Chirwa said the delays were also a concern to electoral stakeholders in the district.

A woman about to cast her vote at Nambo Polling Centre in Mzuzu

Chirwa said in the past results were relayed on the same day of voting and by the following day most of the work would have been completed.

The DC noted that delays were due to inadequate training of presiding officers.

He observed that the presiding officers were failing to balance their worksheet such that results were being rejected by the electronic system.

Said Chirwa: “Probably, they had a hasty training or the training they had was not really to the core of the work they were supposed to do.

“Presiding officers and their assistants do not really know what to do.  Balancing of sheets is not tallying.

He said the centre also experienced transport hitches which led to delays in dispatching materials from the polling stations to the tally centre.

However, he assured the public that the officers were recording actual results in spite of the hitches.

Commenting on the problem, Mzuzu City constituency returning officer Rebecca Chirwa said the training was only for two days, “which was inadequate”.

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