The projects listed below detail the Lithotech electionsAFRICA team's experience in supplying electoral commissions, development agencies and governments with specialised election projects.

2009: DRC Supply of Voter Registration Cards & Forms for the New Voter Registration Project

Supply of 31,360,000 sign-&-seal voter registration cards tendered for and delivered to the UNDP-DRC. Made up with 120-micron film and laminated into a card for printing in the field. Included delivery of 38,000,000 voter education and input forms. The project was designed to be compatible with portable voter data capture equipment and delivered to 6,000 centres in the DRC.

2009: Tanzania Voter Registration Kits

Production and supply of 5,200 camera and solar panel kits, together with stationery and consumables delivered to UNDP-Tanzania for voter registration. This included 8,925,000 pouches to produce laminated voter cards.

2008: Comoros Anjouan Re-run of Presidential Elections

The electionsAFRICA team delivered the re-run for the presidential election for the island, printing and delivering 150,000 ballot forms for the first round and printing and delivering the ballot for the second round with 36 hours notice to be flown straight to the island by special Beech-craft charter.

2007: Mozambique Voter Registration Programme

Production of 14,000,000 voter registration forms and supply of cold fusion pouches for the Mozambique voter registration programme, to run in conjunction with portable voter data capture equipment.

2007: Comoros Presidential Elections

Lithotech delivered the entire requirement of 750 complete polling stations and 422,500 ballot forms for the islands of Anjouan, Ngazidja and Moheli for the June elections. The entire project was prepared, packed, printed and air-freighted by charter flight in less than 5 days from receipt of the order from Programme des Nations Unies Pour Le Development after the selection of candidates.

2007: Nigerian Election Ballot Print Partner

Lithotech was one of three South African print groups selected to contribute to the printing of the ballot for the five Nigerian elections in a keenly contested tender awarded by the Nigerian Printing & Minting Plc. A quantity of 100,000,000 ballot forms was printed in a period of 15 days. The Lithotrax audit trail of ballot printed and numbered was implemented successfully enabling INEC - the Independent National Electoral Commission - to track every numbered ballot form for the governorship elections. Lithotech declined to print the presidential ballot for the Nigerian elections.

2006: Uganda District Election

Production of 33,000,000 ballot forms for 2,750 constituencies successfully completed for the Ugandan Electoral Commission.

2006: South Africa Local Election

Production for the SA IEC of in excess of 12,000,000 ballot forms which were printed electronically off a database supplied by the IEC for over 5,000-polling stations, packed and delivered per polling station demarcated and printed with candidates per ward.

2006: UNDP / DRC

Lithotech completed the supply of 122,000 voting kits for the 2006 elections for the DRC. The provision of material included the supply of pre-packaged voting material for 60,000 polling stations for round 1 and a further 60,000 kits for round 2 of the upcoming elections was the largest contract for electoral material ever awarded by the UNDP for an election that they have taken charge of in Africa or anywhere in the world.

In addition, Lithotech was part of a panel of South African printers who supplied ballot forms for the presidential round 1 and legislative elections.

Both of these projects have seen Lithotech provide services in one of the most ambitious projects yet undertaken in South Africa for an election held in Africa.

Being the first democratic election held in the DRC in over 40 years, this internationally supported landmark election process has become one of the most closely watched events on the African election calendar. The feedback from international observers has been very positive, stating that the election ran smoothly with the minimum disruption shortage of material or incident on election day.

This demanding project unfolded over a period of six months, and comprised the following:

  • The project required up to 900 people to work the production and assembly lines with a team of project managers to co-ordinate the process and ensure a zero-defect delivery of voting kits
  • Warehousing space of 16,000 square metres with ongoing security and services

The electionsAFRICA projects team utilised the following resources from within Lithotech and the Bidvest Group to provide the full array of services required.

  • Lithotech Solutions - project management
  • Lithotech Afric Mail Cape - IT and laser printing resources
  • Lithotech Afric Mail Johannesburg- IT and laser printing resources
  • Lithotech Labels - label production
  • Lithotech Manufacturing Cape - election form production
  • Lithotech Manufacturing Pinetown - election form production
  • Phakama Print - election form production
  • Safcor Panalpina - freight management services
  • Silveray Stationery Manufacturers - stationery manufacture
  • Walton's - stationery procurement and supply
  • Media 24 Group - election book printing services

Details of the material supply for the election kits:

  • The election kits were boxed in 800 x 1200 x 250mm sturdy cardboard containers that were strapped, bagged, palletised and air-freighted to four delivery centres in the DRC and Uganda
  • 29 Flights were required to deliver the 60,000 first round election, 1,259 training and 200 support kits alone, with a further 23 flights for the second round - a range of aircraft from Antinov 164, DC8 to Boeing 747 planes was used (this was a large logistics exercise without parallel in the industry)
  • The total mass of the project was in excess of 3,000 tonnes of material

Each election kit was packed with essential items for a polling station - requirements are detailed as follows for the packing of the kits:

  • 122,000 Kit material boxes
  • 240,000 Ballot boxes in white and orange waterproof correx material made up with windows
  • 480,000 Voting booths
  • 120,000 Hardcover election notebooks
  • 240,000 A5 CEI note-pads
  • 960,000 Pencils
  • 1,440,000 Ballpoint pens
  • 1,200,000 Tamper-evident bags collated in series for submission of reports
  • 720,000 Inkless thumb print pads
  • 120,000 Lanterns with packs of 6 batteries
  • 120,000 Calculators
  • 1,440,000 Seals for ballot booths
  • 240,000 Bottles of hand-stain ink with a guaranteed silver nitrate content with pre-designed dispensing head
  • 480,000 Security bags for returning ballot forms
  • 360,000 Markers for the labelling of security bags
  • 720,000 Tunics for officials
  • 812,000 Election badge holders
  • 812,000 Numbered badges for various official, visitors, dignitaries and observers
  • 120,000 Electoral law books
  • 20,000 Banners printed in four colours
  • Over 12,000,000 election report and control forms printed as 56 different forms for training, first and second round election requirements - printed in a variety of single and up to 5-part carbonised formats were delivered comprising in excess of 600 tons of paper; size ranges extended from A4 to A1 5-part carbonised formats (this excluded the ballot form production)
  • 120,000 Pencil sharpeners
  • 120,000 Special stamps
  • 120,000 Boxes of tissues
  • 120,000 Garbage bags
  • 120,000 Rulers and pairs of scissors
  • 240,000 Rolls of adhesive tape

In addition, training material, banners and cards for identifying observers, journalists, political party representatives and officials were supplied.

2005: Kenya Referendum

The Lithotech electionsAFRICA division completed the printing and supply of 12,000,000 ballot papers for the 2005 referendum in Kenya. Lithotech completed the supply of 12,000,000 ballot papers made up into 240,000 books personalised for distribution to 14,113 polling stations in a record production time of two weeks.

2004: Mozambique General Election

The Presidential and Parliamentary elections were declared free and fair by the International Observer Group and Carter Foundation. The project consisted of supplying 12,926 polling station kits containing 45 items and top-up materials of ballot booths, ballot boxes and lamps. These were distributed as required to the 11 provinces in accordance with a pre-determined database of requirements. Over 28,000,000 ballot forms were printed in 5 colours.

This project became a repeat of the successful 1999 contract for the provision of ballot papers and voting material for Mozambique, which was successfully completed by the Lithotech electionsAFRICA project team.

2003: Mozambique Voter Registration Programme

2,993 Voter registration kits packed with 33 items were despatched to the 11 provinces. The project contained 4-million forms, 4,988 coded books with audit trail control, 20 tons of Polaroid film, additional cameras and flashes, instruction manuals and 2,700,000 laminated pouches for the enclosing of voter registration cards detached from the registration forms.

2003: Mozambique Local Election

Success for the project meant that every aspect of supply of the kits - which included 32 separate items and 5,977,400 numbered ballot forms - had to be 100% present and correct for every kit and polling station in the 11 provinces, 33 municipalities and 2,717 polling stations. In total over 80 separate items made up as 32 lots were supplied, including the stationery, lamps, minutes, announcements, banners, finger-stain ink, pens and pencils, glue, string and ballot forms for every box per polling station delivered.

2002: Ugandan Local Elections

Lithotech's electionsAFRICA team successfully integrated the lithographic and laser over-printing of 52,000,000 ballot forms for the three levels of local elections requiring scanning of over 35,000 candidate photos and delivering correctly printed ballot forms and photos for 12,940 electoral areas. All accessed by audit trail and guaranteed error and fraud free in production and delivery.

2002: Nigerian Voter Registration Programme

Assisted with MM&A in the design, development and production of voter registration forms for the Nigerian voter registration programme.

2001: The South African Census

Production of over 40,000,000 12-page census booklets with integrated multiple bar-coded labels for document and control tracking purposes. A unique feature of the project was the packing into 50 of the forms with an on-line control sheet for tracking and receipt of numbers used.

2001: Uganda Presidential Election

Design, production and supply of 11,000,000 ballot forms for the 2001 Ugandan presidential election printed on security UV dull bond in 5 colours with invisible florescent ink.

2000/2001: Tanzanian General Election

Production and supply of 13,437,500 sets of presidential, parliamentary and local ward ballot forms - making up 40,312,500 ballot forms. Printed and imaged at local level for distribution including the scanning of over 7,500 candidate photos for ward and parliamentary candidates with complete audit trail back-up for every ballot form produced and shipped to the 2,504 local wards with sequential numbering according to a series required per constituency.

2000: South African Local Government Elections

A major achievement in these elections was the success achieved with the secure compilation, production, and distribution of 309 different ballot papers. Lithotech printed about one third of the volume required with the volume being shared between four major print houses.

1999: South African National & Provincial Elections

The special projects team designed and produced the electronic voter's roll for the IEC polling station requirements. This landmark project resulted in 15-million voters' rolls being produced in two weeks and delivered throughout SA for the 1999 election comprising 18-million people in over 15,000 voting centres. This project was co-ordinated through seven different laser sites within South Africa.

10,000,000 Ballot forms were simultaneously printed and boxed for distribution. The total volume was shared between three major print houses.

1999: Mozambique

The supply of 10,250,000 OMR forms and packaging of material for Mozambique's first full-scale integrated voter registration programme in conjunction with OMR equipment supplied by NCS of the USA.

Supply of voter education material for the 11 provinces of Mozambique for the December 1999 elections.

Design and supply of 9,185 complete polling station kits for the presidential and parliamentary elections, including polling booths, ballot boxes, stationery, ink, banners and ballot forms.