In line with agreed procedures, the IEC will retrieve and examine sample ballot boxes from the August 20 presidential polls and present its findings to the ECC upon completion. The ECC will verify that the IEC conducts the process in accordance with the agreed audit and recount procedures.
"The ECC will use the information collected through this process in its decision-making and all decisions will be final and binding," says an IEC document that provides an overview of the procedures.
It will be instructive to recall the audit and recount is being conducted in response to the September 8 order of the ECC. The IEC was directed to recount ballot boxes from the presidential election which meet the following criteria:
- Where the total number of votes is equal to or greater than 600, which was the maximum number of ballots allocated to each polling station;
- Where any one presidential candidate received 95 or more of the total valid votes cast in a polling station (if the total number of votes cast exceeds 100).
The total number of ballot boxes affected by the order is 3,063. In order to implement the order, the ECC and IEC agreed auditing of presidential ballots would be carried out through a random sampling of 313 ballot boxes.
According to the IEC, these ballot boxes were identified through the National Tally Centre Database, which recorded preliminary results as announced by the IEC. Under the ECC order, this number includes ballot boxes which were previously quarantined by the IEC, meeting the two criteria.
Ballot boxes included in the sample are divided into three groups:
- Ballot boxes meeting Criteria A (600 ballots or more): 627 ballot boxes;
- Ballot boxes meeting Criteria B (95% or more votes for a single candidate, with 100 ballots or more); 1,522 ballot boxes; and
- Ballot boxes meeting both criteria A and B: 914 ballot boxes.
The sample group reflects approximately 10% of the estimated number of ballot papers included in the boxes, resulting in a total of 313 ballot boxes. Ballot boxes included in the sample are selected randomly in the presence of the main electoral institutions, observers, candidate agents, the United Nations and technical experts.
Since the audit pertains only to presidential ballots, the entire country was considered as a single constituency and geography was not a determinant in the selection of sample ballot boxes.
"The size of the sample and the margin of error involved are deemed sufficient by the ECC and the IEC to accurately reflect the behaviour of the larger 3,063 ballot boxes. The margin of error is estimated at 0.5%."
Observer groups and candidate or party agents are informed of the transportation of materials and are thus able to observe transportation of ballots. Warehouses where ballot boxes are located are off-limits to all people unless accompanied by an ECC staff member.
According to the procedures, audit teams consisting of two IEC staff members and one technical advisor from the United Nations examine ballot boxes for physical indication of fraud including ballot box stuffing, tampering, or other irregularities -through checking, for example, numbered seals, whether boxes are broken, accompanying forms and documentations, proper packing of ballot papers, manner in which ballots were completed, and presence of additional materials such as unused ballots or previously-broken seals.
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