and Part 19.3 of the Polling Manual which is Appendix 4 to the said manual. However, the
heading under part 17.1 of the Polling Manual is headed “Null and Void Ballot Papers”. What
clearly emerges is that the Commission expanded the statutory definition of “null and void” votes.
This is so because the only other possible classification to which “rejected ballots” could have
applied is “spoilt ballots”, but a spoilt ballot is specifically defined under the Manual under Part
1 (Glossary of Polling Terms), as follows:
“A ballot paper that has a mistake on it made by a voter before it is
placed in the ballot box. The Polling Station Officer may issue a
replacement ballot paper. The spoilt ballot paper must be retained for
accounting purposes.”
43. The Commission ought to have strictly applied the statutory definition of null and void votes and
then extended the other forms of “rejected ballots” to the “spoilt ballots” category in the definition
provided for under the Polling Procedures Manual. The Court makes this observation in view of
the fact that the issue of “null and void” votes or ballots has featured quite prominently in the
present proceedings. The understanding of the same should have been on the basis of statutory
clarity.
44. Section 89 (1) of the PPEA confers legal standing to raise doubts and make complaints relating
to the voting on representatives of political parties (or candidates) as well as any voter present at
the polling station. Section 89 (2) of the Act then confers a correlative duty on the part of any
polling station officer not to refuse to receive a complaint presented to him or her under Section
89 (1) and it requires such officer to initial every such presentation and to annex it as part of the
official record of the polling station. Subsection (3) then mandates the polling station officers to
resolve such presentations (complaints).
45. Section 90 describes the process of what must happen at the close of the poll at a polling station.
However, to properly contextualise this provision, it is also significant to state what must happen
at the start of the process. Part of what must happen has been described under section 70 of the
PPEA, as discussed above. However, that provision does not, for example, state with specificity,
what exactly must happen before polling begins. Form VI made under section 93 of the PPEA
makes some specific provisions in this regard. However, it is perhaps appropriate that before the
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