July 14th, 2020 at 10:34 pm
The Electoral Commission’s attention has been drawn to a development at some registration centres where certain people are acting as ‘Guarantor Contractors’. Such an act is illegal in the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 91 and the officials of the Commission will not hesitate to hand over such persons to the security agencies to face the law.
The CI 91 states that a registered voter who is the applicant’s parent, sibling, spouse, guardian and other are the only persons who can serve as a guarantor.
It specifies that an applicant must be well known to the guarantor and that anything contrary to that constitutes an electoral offence punishable by law.
According to the CI 91, it is an offence to “Make an entry of statement, which that person knows to be false or does not believe to be true for the purpose of registering a voter”.
Under the guarantor window, the individual vouching is required to swear an oath affirming that he or she knows the applicant, is qualified to register as a voter ant that registration centre.
People who commit such an offence are liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than five hundred penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than two years or both.