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Article 86
 

(1) Political parties contesting the election shall have the right to nominate a sufficient number of agents, to be determined by the Commission, to oversee at all times the receipt of the ballot boxes, documents and packets, by the Commission from the Assistant Commissioners and the storage of the said ballot boxes, documents and packets after the receipt thereof. These agents shall henceforth in this Act be referred to as 'delivery agents'.

(2) Party delegates, candidates and their agents as well as delivery agents shall have the right to monitor the receipt of the ballot boxes by the Electoral Commission from the Assistant Commissioners and to make representations thereon.

(3) If any of the Commissioners or any party delegate, candidate or delivery agent claims that any ballot box or package is received in a state that it gives rise to suspicion that it may have been tampered with, the Commission shall order such box or packet to be dealt with separately from the other boxes or packets, and shall immediately call a meeting of the Commission and at such meeting the Commission shall have the power to hear such evidence under oath as it deems necessary.

(4) Where the Commission decides that there is no evidence that justifies the suspicion that the box or packet has been tampered with, its decision shall be final and no appeal shall lie therefrom.

(5) Any claim as is referred to in the previous subsections of this section shall be made as soon as the ballot box or packet is delivered by the Assistant Commissioners to the Commission and for this purpose the Commission shall ensure that the party delegates, candidates or delivery agents are given adequate facilities to attentively inspect the ballot boxes' documents or packets.

(6) It shall be the duty of the Commission to ensure the mathematical accuracy of the ballot paper account and that this tallies with the declared number of voting documents returned by the Assistant Commissioners. Political parties shall have the right to demand that the Commission shall for this purpose open all packets containing voting documents relative to not more than ten per cent of all ballot boxes in order to physically check the accuracy of such returns.

(7) Political parties shall select the ballot boxes in relation to which the packets containing voting documents are to be opened during delivery of the ballot boxes to the Commission and prior to the storage of the ballot boxes.

(8) As each ballot box is received and cleared by the Commission in terms of this section it shall be transferred to the room designated by the Commissioner for the storage of all ballot boxes in terms of section 45 of this Act. Ballot boxes shall be transferred from this room to the counting area as soon as practicable for the purpose of undertaking the Ballot Paper Account Reconciliation process mentioned in the following Part of this Act.

(9) As soon as practicable after all ballot boxes have been received and cleared in terms of this section and prior to the start of the sorting process the Electoral Commission shall publicly declare the total number of ballot papers declared to be cast in accordance with the ballot paper accounts delivered by the Assistant Commissioners as well as the number of ballot papers in each ballot box as resulting from the same account.

(10) The Commission shall preserve until the publication of the official results of the next following election all papers delivered to them by the Assistant Commissioners, as well as the unused ballot papers and the voting documents, in separate sealed packets indicating on each packet the nature of the documents contained therein, and the electoral division to which they appertain.

(11) On every packet as is referred to in the preceding subsection there shall be affixed the seal of the Electoral Commission and the signature of at least two Commissioners, and of any party delegate, candidate or delivery agent who may wish to sign it.