Zanzibar completes burning of 720,000 ballot papers

Unguja. The Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) has finalised the burning of 720,000 documents related to the General Election held on October 29, 2025.

The destroyed documents include 100,000 unused ballot papers, while 461,000 were used ballots from Unguja and 159,000 from Pemba.

Speaking during the destruction event on Saturday February 28, 2026 at a designated pit in Muungoni, South Unguja Region, ZEC chairperson Justice George Joseph Kazi said the commission had acted in accordance with the law after receiving no court injunction.

“The Election Act of 2018 stipulates that 90 days after a General Election, ZEC must destroy the documents if there is no court order restraining the exercise,” said Justice Kazi.

The destruction process began on February 18, 2026 in Pemba, 90 days after the election, as there was no court injunction preventing the commission from carrying out the exercise.

On the existence of court cases relating to the election, Justice Kazi said the presence of cases was separate from the issuance of a court injunction.

“It is true that there are election petitions on the Unguja side, but in Pemba they have already been dismissed due to various procedural deficiencies by the applicants,” he said.

“For Unguja, some cases have been heard while others are yet to be heard. However, they were filed without any application for an injunction to restrain the destruction of the documents, and ZEC did not receive any court order preventing implementation of the law,” he added.

Justice Kazi said the commission was acting within the law and that any person who believed otherwise had the right to seek redress in court.

“If the court requires an explanation, we will state that the law provides for 90 days and that it could have issued an injunction. We have complied with the legal requirements,” he emphasised.

Meanwhile, Head of the Evaluation and Records Disposal Division at the Zanzibar Archives, Ms Zuwena Rajab Ali, said Sections 13 to 15 of the Archives Act of 2008 grant the institution authority to supervise the destruction of records.

“The Archives Act recognises these as records. Documents cannot be destroyed arbitrarily. Records have a retention schedule, and once their period expires, and depending on their assessed value, they may be destroyed as they no longer hold archival value,” she said.

She clarified that the institution does not preserve ballot papers for future reference but retains election results.

“You cannot store ballot papers indefinitely or without space considerations. The results are what matter, and anyone who requires them can access them. We hold election results dating back to the period before the Revolution. No one comes requesting ballot papers,” she said.

For his part, Muungoni Sheha Mussa Juma Mbwato said the village government had been informed of the exercise and had granted its approval.

Recently, the opposition party ACT-Wazalendo filed a petition to block the destruction but it was dismissed by the court.