HARARE, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on Friday invited political parties to witness the printing of ballot papers to be used in the July 30 general elections.

According to state-controlled newspaper The Herald, the process was meant to clear suspicions from opposition parties that the printing of ballots would be secretive.

Fidelity Printers, an arm of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, is printing presidential and National Assembly ballots while government printer Printflow is printing those for local authority elections.

The paper said a number of political parties raised concerns over the process saying that they were not allowed to witness the actual printing process and that they had not been given samples of the ballot papers.?