30 Aug 2018

The Office of the President wishes to inform the public that the Electoral (Amendment) Act of 2016 (“the 2016 Act”) introduced amendments in order to improve efficiency in the electoral process.

The 2016 Act introduced changes including electronic voting, abolition of supplementary registration, increased nomination fees and fines, amongst others.

With regard to electronic voting, the 2016 Act makes provision for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which are machines or apparatus whether or not operated electronically, used for the giving and recording of votes.

The Electoral (Amendment) Act of 2016 was passed by Parliament in 2016 but has not been brought into operation.

On 1st December 2017, Government published the Electoral (Amendment) Bill of 2017 which proposed to repeal and replace the 2016 Act while at the same time introducing Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail.

The Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was not tabled in Parliament. Since the Electoral (Amendment) Act of 2016 is not in operation, the 2019 General Elections will be conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act [Cap. 02:09], which does not provide for the use of EVMs, nor prohibits supplementary registration. ENDS