ECZ ready for voter registration exercise

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) says all is set for the voter registration exercise scheduled to commence next month.
ECZ Public Relations Manager Chris Akufuna said preparations for the exercise were progressing well and that the Commission was ready to kick start the exercise.

Mr Akufuna told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka on Monday that all logistics have been put in place to ensure that the exercise is conducted in a free and conducive atmosphere.

He said the Chairperson of the Commission Justice Florence Mumba will soon announce the date in which the exercise will begin.
The ECZ Public Relations Manager has since appealed to politicians not to derail the process by politicising the exercise but to work with the Commission to ensure everything goes well.

The ECZ is this June expected to kick start the voter registration exercise in readiness for the 2011 tripartite elections.

Meanwhile, four political parties have appealed to Zambians who are 18 years old and above to register as voters when the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) starts the voters’ registration exercise to prepare for the 2011 tripartite elections.

The United Party for National Development (UPND), United National Independence Party (UNIP) and the National Revolution Party (NRP) told ZANIS in Lusaka that all Zambians who are eligible to vote should register as voters in order for them to exercise their democratic right.

UPND Views

UPND deputy spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa said the process of registering voters was of paramount importance to the country hence the need for Zambians to take it seriously. Mr. Mweetwa said the UPND has already started sensitising its members to take advantage of the voters’ registration exercise and register so that they take part in the general elections.
He said voting was one effective way of expressing one’s feelings about the governance of the country hence the need for Zambians to register for next year’s elections.

He has meanwhile, called on the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to ensure that awareness campaigns about the exercise to the electorate were intensified. Mr. Mweetwa also urged the ECZ to involve influential people when advertising the exercise on national television, radio and other forms of media.

“I would also like to encourage the ECZ to sensitise the electorate by picking on people that capture the attention of the public when advertising the registration of voters’ exercise,” he said. He proposed that the ECZ should involve leaders of major political parties in the country to appeal to Zambians to register as voters through the national television and other media. Mr. Mweetwa further proposed that the ECZ should increase the voters’ registration centres in all the districts in the country, especially in rural areas to enable more people register.

UNIP Views

And United National Independence Party (UNIP) Vice President, Njekwa Anamela called on Zambians to register as voters in order for them to help determine the country’s political leadership in next year’s election. Mr. Anamela, who is also Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID) spokesperson, said youths who have just reached 18 years should not miss but register as voters because they were important in the governance of the country. He further prodded the ECZ to involve all political parties and civil society organisations in sensitising their members countrywide.He has also appealed to the Ministry of Home Affairs, particularly the Department of National Registration to accelerate the issuance of National Registration Cards (NRCs) in order to enable youths register as voters when the exercise begins in the next few days.

NRP Views

National Revolution Party (NRP) president, Cosmo Mumba said young people should take the governance of Zambia seriously by registering as voters next month. Dr. Mumba said youths should stop their physical violence during elections but be proactive through their decisions in the ballot. He suggested that for the sensitisation exercise to progress smoothly and effectively, the ECZ should provide financial resources to all political parties so that they can educate their members about the voters’ registration exercise. He said churches should also get involved in sensitising their members to register as voters because an election is a national programme that affects everyone. Dr. Mumba said public places should also be flooded with adverts concerning the voters’ registration exercise.

[pullquote]“Can the ECZ come out clean on the matter and tell us how it will address those concerns. All stakeholders must be satisfied, there must be mutual consensus right from the start up to the end to ensure that the outcome of the election is not disputed,” he said[/pullquote]

PF Views

The opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has urged the ECZ and Government to ensure that all stakeholders in the voters’ registration exercise are satisfied with measures aimed at avoiding disputes after elections next year. PF spokesperson, Given Lubinda said the ECZ should identify and remove from the voters’ roll, names of people who registered as voters before the 2006 general elections but have since died. Mr. Lubinda said this is in order to allay any possible suspicion that there will be ghost voters in the 2011 presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. He said Government and the ECZ should explain how the issue of ghost voters will be avoided in the election.

He said the ECZ should also explain to Zambians how it will handle voters that have since moved from the areas where they voted last time to other places. Mr. Lubinda said this is to ensure that there is no duplication of voters and dual registration in the voters’ roll. “Let ECZ come up with a system that is devoid of duplication of voters register before we continue with the updating the voters register,” he said. He said mere updating of the voters’ register is not full proof but is still open to rigging of elections hence the need to convince all stakeholders that the election will be transparent from the very beginning of process of registering voters

“Can the ECZ come out clean on the matter and tell us how it will address those concerns. All stakeholders must be satisfied, there must be mutual consensus right from the start up to the end to ensure that the outcome of the election is not disputed,” he said. Mr. Lubinda, who is also Kabwata PF Member of Parliament, said the ECZ should devise a system that will ensure that no political party cries foul in the 2011 tripartite election.

[pullquote]The Commission, which is targeting to register about 6.4 million voters this year, has since commenced conducting workshops for people that will take part in the exercise.[/pullquote]

But ECZ Public Relations Manager, Chris Akufuna, said the process of removing the names of the deceased people from the register has already been discussed with political parties and other stakeholders.

FODEP Views

On the same issue, Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) president, Stanley Mhango, urged political parties to mobilise their party structures around the country and use them to carry out awareness campaigns about the voters’ registration exercise.

Mr. Mhango said political parties and Zambians in general should take advantage of the exercise and should not politicise it in anyway because it was their civic responsibility to register as voters. He said the voters’ registration was an opportunity for all Zambians to participate in giving the direction to which Zambia should go after the 2011 elections. He urged the ECZ to be responsive and take seriously all the concerns that will be raised by stakeholders that include political parties, civil society organisations and the media before, during and after the exercise. Mr. Mhango observed that transparency was critical in the administration of the electoral process in Zambia.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia has set June as the month to start updating the voters’ register and registering new voters in readiness for the 2011 general elections. The Commission, which is targeting to register about 6.4 million voters this year, has since commenced conducting workshops for people that will take part in the exercise.

ZANIS