A team of officials from the State Printer of Nepal and Electoral Commission is making a special trip to visit the Smith & Ouzman premises this week for a series of workshops hosted by us to help the country prepare for its Constituent Assembly elections. Smith & Ouzman will be providing specialist information on project management and production monitoring and the delegates will also have the opportunity to see a ballot project in progress.

The company’s involvement with this initiative stems from Smith & Ouzman’s extensive work overseas and our relations with the UN and IFES, an International Elections Non-Profit Foundation. The IFES is a democracy development organisation that works to give people a voice in the way they are governed and provide countries with the technical advice and tools they need to run democratic elections.

According to Nick Smith, Sales Director at Smith & Ouzman, “We’ve previously worked with UN departments and Electoral Commissions to print ballot papers for various post-conflict and high stake elections in countries, including Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Mauritania. The decision was made locally that, on this occasion, the ballot papers would be printed in Nepal by the State Printer.

"However, they didn’t have sufficient experience in this specialist type of printing. It will require about 400 tonnes of paper and have to be produced to very tight timescales and so we were approached to provide specialist consultancy services to assist them in the planning and carrying out of the project.”

Smith & Ouzman is also currently printing the ballot papers for the Kenyan General Elections on December 27 and will soon be welcoming the Kenyan Electoral Commission to Eastbourne once again.

Earlier this year, Kenyan Government officials visited Smith & Ouzman to inspect the company’s facilities, see the town’s local elections first hand and meet with Martin Ray, Chief Executive of Eastbourne Borough Council.