The opposition Leadership Movement has lamented the low turnout in the ongoing continuous registration of voters being conducted by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
ECZ this week revealed that only 2,810 new voters have been registered since the exercise commenced on June 1st 2022.
Giving an update on the continuous voter registration at a media briefing in Lusaka, ECZ outgoing Chief Electoral Officer Patrick Nshindano had indicated that the provisional statistics covering a period June and July 31st, 2022 from all the 10 districts, indicate that 1,898 of those captured are males while and 912 are females.
Mr. Nshindano said ECZ has managed to update voter records from 1,537 people within the same period.
Commenting on the low turnout, Leadership Movement Media Director Tatila Tatila said the statistics were not inspiring stakeholders in the electoral process such as political parties.
Mr. Tatila alleged that the low turnout in the ongoing continuous registration of voters shows that people have no confidence in the process.
He challenged ECZ to ensure that statistics in the continuous registration of voters are improved.
“Continuous Voter Registration statistics for July that stands at 2,810 is an Embarrassment and at the sometime a confirmation that stakeholders have no confidence in the current leadership at the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).Low turnout in the continuous voter registration keeps on exposing ECZ those stakeholders has no confidence in them and its programmes. Leadership Movement-LM has noted that Political Parties and the general public have expressed concerns regarding unprofessional conduct by ECZ staffs and its seniors in the past elections,” Mr. Tatila said.
He proposed that ECZ open more registration centers.
The four-month continuous registration of voter exercise ECZ launched on 1st June, 2022 is only being done in ten provincial centers of the country.
“As a party, we demand for the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) which is transparent as it is the high time that Zambia should have an Independent Electoral Commission that will bring about professionalism at the Elections House in Zambia. Just last week, The ECZ had closed the Lusaka Voter Registration station due to the just ended Showgrounds. Both CVR Lusaka city library, ECZ headquarters and ECZ resource Centre are supposed to be Operational and provide CVR service 24/7 to the potential voters throughout. In the case of Choma, The ECZ team lacks coordination with NGO’s the church and Media in order for them to win numbers in the CVR.As a party, we have also advised the Electoral Commission of Zambia to re – introduce the online Registration process but we seem not to get answers as ECZ staffs have its own direction,” Mr. Tatila added.
You vote for someone to become rich it’s all rubbish.
This is okay. Why get a voters card if you don’t need it? I am certain that CB provincial will receive a lot of new voters now that there will be two by-election there.
This is a positive in that previously, these younger voters would have been excluded from the election.
Most politicians just talk without deep thought. It’s unfortunate that Tatila as a young man can issue such an uncoordinated statement. Elections are seasonal and we still have 4yrs to go. If people are fatigued with by-elections, how about CVR? People are mobile and many won’t be in their current stations by 2026 which we require them to visit ECZ to update their records. Life doesn’t revolve around elections. Who’s going to meet the cost of opening more centres as demanded by Tatila? Let his NGO put in money. Don’t make unnecessary calls on institutions you don’t fund. We knew that CVR can’t work so forget about it
They are deliberately making it harder for those in non upnd strongholds from registering. More money pumped in t0nga land
For Chushi’s sake this is the 21st century. Start acting like you live in the IT age. You don’t need to register voters. Put all information on one card. Put everything from Birth certificate which determines your voting age, nationality, driving license, passport etc on one ID doc. The problem with African countries is they are waiting for the colonial master to come up with a business idea that will be sold to them. Like the covid vaccines. But we have IT experts in abundance right here.