16 Presidential candidates have successfully filed in their nomination papers for the 12th August general elections out of the 20 paid-up candidates, after the presidential nominations which started on Monday 17th May through to yesterday Thursday 20th May, officially closed.
Speaking during a briefing in Lusaka to mark the closing of the presidential nomination process, ECZ Chief Electoral Officer Patrick Nshindano said that Movement for Democrtatic Congress ( MDC )’s Felix Mutati, United Party Prosperous and Peaceful Zambia ( UPPZ ) Charles Chanda, All People’s Congress Party ( APCP) leader Nason Msoni with Independent candidate Masuwa Kalabi having failed to file in his nomination papers.
“The first include Mr Nason Msoni, All People’s Congress Party whose pre-processing was incomplete and also did not submit nomination documents, we also had Mr Peter Chanda New Congress Party who officially withdrew from the nomination process.
“We also had Mr Felix Mutati movement for democratic change whose pre-processing was incomplete and later officially withdrew from the process and last but not least Mr Kalabi who was unsuccessful as he did not meet the number of required supporters,” he said.
And speaking when officially closing the nomination process, ECZ Chairperson Justice Esau Chulu explained that the closing of the nomination process delayed allowing the independent candidate to file his nomination papers, adding that the commission had to use its discretion to go beyond the 17 hours deadline just to allow the candidate to file in his nomination but he was however unsuccessful.
“I had to exercise my discretion to allow a candidate who was already on the premises to bring his supporters in the hope that by the time we should have closed, he would have raised one thousand supporters,” he said.
And earlier, Mr Kalabi accused the commission of not communicating adequately with him on the requirements needed when filing his nomination process, claiming that his supporters were blocked from accessing the Showgrounds which the designated place was meant to scrutinize the supporters.
Mr Nshindano however denied the allegation saying the commission adequately informed all the candidates prior to the start of the process and that candidates need to own up when they make mistakes as opposed to falsely accusing the commission.
The ruling PF, UPND, Third Liberation Movement, Socialist Party, Party of National Unity and Progress (PNUP), UNIP’s, United Prosperous and Peaceful Zambia (UPPZ) and MMD have this week successfully filed in their nomination papers.
Other parties are Patriots for Economic Progress (PEP), Democratic Party (DP ), Leadership Movement (LM), Zambia United for Sustainable Development ( ZUSD ), National Restoration Party (NAREP), New Heritage Party(NHP), People’s Alliance for Change (PAC) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF ) all successfully managed to file in their nomination papers for their respective Presidential candidates and running mates.
ECZ closed the Presidential Nominations on May 20,2021. This means that Citizens can now Petition against the Eligibility of the 16 Presidential Candidates and their Running Mates in terms of Article 52 of the Constitution. Since the Nomination Period was extended by ECZ to 20th May 2021 the Period for Petitions should also be extended. ECZ needs to make a Public Statement stating when Petition Processes. ECZ should be transparent in handling these Electoral Processes. It’s important that the 2021 Elections be declared free, fair,credible and peaceful.
Sixteen successful candidates, of which only two are realistically potential winners. That’s fourteen times K95,000 wasted and now in the pocket of the corrupt PF government!
Completely unnecessary comment,people need to have trust in their own independent institutions. If you consider ECZ and PF to be the same thing then it shows the kind of people we are as a nation. Building a nation requires that it’s citizens have a certain level of integrity not only the elected leaders.
People of Zambia, please vote out the most corrupt government Zambia has ever produced.
Die is cast. Well done ECZ. Now bane go and sell your ideas and leadership to the voters. We are all ears so that we can scrutinize you. And please campaign in the spirit of unity in diversity and progress. One Zambia One Nation One People under one God, the Maker of all.
So Lungu has managed to disregard the Constitution and go for a 3rd term without anyone raising a finger? Unbelievable! What happened to all the civil society movement and vigilante citizens who stopped Chiluba’s 3rd term in its tracks?
This guy has singlehandedly managed to destroy and silence the trade unions, the NGOs, student movement, independent media, the judiciary and a other supposedly independent govt institutions. He did it easily and quietly with no much fanfare.
If he can do this, what would stop him from stealing the elections again. There’s no more country here… the only thing keeping it together is the docility and cowardice of its citizens, wrongly and worryingly disguised as ‘peaceful’.
I consider myself a liberal and democrat, for promotion of democracy in Zambia some of these parties stand for nothing and represent nobody. There has been so many small parties that cheer for PF and wonder what they stand for. They have no representation at local or national level, no office or manifesto only one man who loves PF and ECL!
We should change the law to define minimum requirements!
AT THE END OF THE DAY THE WILL TRY ALIGN THEMSELVES TO THE WINNER
ITS ALL ABOUT POCKET MONEY AND SELF INTEREST
16 is very good for our democracy, elections shouldn’t be the preserve of those with money. A long standing opposition Party thinks that those others don’t deserve to contest elections but should instead vote for them. What kind of understanding of democracy is that? At least out of 16 those of us who think that Hichilema and Lungu aren’t quality leaders have a choice. If you can’t pick one out of 16 then you just have a problem
There is only one woman amongst the 16. Women are 53% of the voters. If all women rallied behind Kateka, Zambia will havw the first woman president by September 2021. But women being what we are tukaya votela abaume. Then we will continue complaining as usual. women….what do we want?
Women are busy celebrating second position ….running mate, yet there is already a competent woman as a presidential candidate.
Lets have a woman president this time around.
1 ELIGIBLE Presidential Candidate Successfully File in Nominations for Zambia’s August 12 Elections…
Sometimes I wonder why we waste time and money on elections when we all know pf is going to win. I guess that is the price we pay for democracy.