A key component of a free, fair and credible election is TRANSPARENCY in the electoral process. Transparency gives trust and confidence in the electoral process. When stakeholders vouch for the printing of ballot papers, for example, to have been done correctly and transparently, it provides credibility to the electoral process.
It is therefore a serious setback to learn that the Electoral Commission of Zambia has made a decision to exclude observers representing stakeholders such as political parties participating in the election from observing the printing of ballot papers unless they sponsor themselves.

The basic principle about a free, fair and credible election is that the whole process of election should not be conducted secretly. There should be no secrets in a presidential and general election. The voters need to know and should agree to who will print the ballot papers, how much it will cost, how the tender process is going to be conducted , who is going to observe the printing process, how the printed ballot papers àre going to be transported and how the ballot papers àre going to be distributed to all polling stations.

The voters àre also interested to know how and where the ballot papers àre going to be stored, how the ballot papers àre going to be given out to eligible voters and how they are going to be counted, transmitted and announced to the public. The whole process must be done in full view of the public.

It cannot and should never be a secret undertaking by the Electoral Commission of Zambia. We still have an unresolved problem of electronic transmission of results and access to the Electoral Commission of Zambia computer room. Whereas we are in the computer age and need to embrace modern technology in managing elections, we do not agree that such technology should be used secretly to manipulate results of the election. Currently, the PF has access to the Electoral Commission of Zambia computer room but no other political party is allowed access to the computer room. Why? In the 2016 presidential and general elections, senior PF cadres were allowed access to the computer room to manipulate results of the election. In the interest of transparency, all political parties participating in the election should be allowed access to the Electoral Commission of Zambia computer room.

So far, the Electoral Commission of Zambia has misconducted itself over the issue of printing of ballot papers. At a time when the country is still debating on whether to print the ballot papers in Zambia or abroad, the Electoral Commission of Zambia proceeded to award a tender to a company in Dubai to print the ballot papers almost one and half years before the presidential and general elections in August 2021 . Why the hurry?

This has been devoid of consultations with major stakeholders. In the past, stakeholders used to be consulted over serious matters like the printing of presidential and general election ballot papers. What has changed? Would someone be wrong to conclude that there is vested interest in the printing of presidential and general election ballot papers? In the past, some Electoral Commission of Zambia officials were arrested and charged with corruption offences relating to the printing of ballot papers. What has motivated the Electoral Commission of Zambia to move very fast to award a tender to the Dubai company? The Electoral Commission of Zambia owes the nation an explanation on its decision to award a tender to the Dubai company. When and where did they advertise the tender? How many companies participated in the tender? What were the various tender prices by respective bidders? What were the various capacities of the bidders to undertake the exercise?

After they have answered the above questions, they should then answer the crucial question of why they want to print the presidential and general election ballot papers secretly because they have no money to sponsor observers to Dubai to witness the printing of ballot papers.

The explanation given so far for not considering to sponsor observers to Dubai to witness the printing of ballot papers is absurd. The Electoral Commission of Zambia cannot claim at this stage that it has no money to sponsor observers to Dubai to witness the printing of ballot papers. The printing of ballot papers will be done in 2021.The government budget for the year 2021 has not yet been presented to Parliament for approval. How does the Electoral Commission of Zambia conclude that there will be no money in the 2021 government budget to sponsor observers to Dubai to witness the printing of ballot papers? If the Electoral Commission of Zambia has no money now in this year’s budget, it doesn’t mean that it will have no money even in the 2021 budget.

The job of the Electoral Commission of Zambia is to prepare its budget for 2021 and have it presented to Parliament for approval. It is up to the Members of Parliament to approve or reject the provision of sponsoring observers to Dubai to witness the printing of ballot papers. The Electoral Commission of Zambia has no mandate to decide on behalf of the Zambian people whether or not to sponsor observers to Dubai to witness the printing of ballot papers. We, the Zambian people using our money from taxes have decided in the past and will continue to decide in future that in the interest of transparency and in order to have free, fair and credible elections, we will pay for election observers to monitor the printing of ballot papers. It is not ECZ money, it’s our money. So who is ECZ to tell us that there is no money to sponsor observers to Dubai to witness the printing of ballot papers?

Such decisions by the Electoral Commission of Zambia only go to reinforce suspicions that the PF government is planning to abuse the Electoral Commission of Zambia to rig the 2021 presidential and general elections. We have already seen the manoeuvring over the 2021presidential and general elections. The PF government has been secretly issuing National Registration Cards to members in its strongholds in order to have an in-built majority in the voters register. They are also planning to scrap the current voters register and come up with a totally new voters register where they are targeting to register 9 million voters. There are also plans to introduce electronic voting.

And of course, we are aware of the manoeuvring to enact Bill 10 to enhance chances for the PF to manipulate and win the 2021 presidential and general elections.

These schemes will be met by people power. PF should just realise that they have failed to deliver to the Zambian people. They should leave peacefully and in a dignified manner. They will regret if they try to impose themselves on the Zambian people.

By: Anthony Bwalya – UPND Member

Modern coup d’etat are no longer promulgated and executed by dissident groups against legitimately elected governments.

Modern coup d’etat are a pure creation of governments thin on popular public sentiment but intent on holding on to power. In the process, they hijack and use all methods of subversion to undermine democratic principles and practices in order to tilt the balance and outcome of an election in their favor.

Just like slavery, the face of modern-day coup d’etat against legitimate governments, duly elected by the people, has invariably evolved and transformed into much more subtle, deadly forms – often difficult to pick up on.

Today, we have a PF government that has held hostage all instruments and institutions of democratic governance, through the use of intimidation, bribery and extortion in a quest to undermine the outcome of elections at every level, everywhere across the country – from Sesheke to Roan, from Bahati to Chilanga and now CHILUBI.

The January 2019 report into voting patterns was unequivocally clear in its indictment of the PF and its leadership around the abuse of public resources and institutions for their own benefit during elections.

The report cited specific cases of abuse of government vehicles by PF officials and Ministers, the abuse of state institutions such as the police, for carrying out illegal orders under the colonial, draconian Public Order Act in order to bar members of the opposition political fraternity room to campaign and engage the public freely. The same report is damning in its characterization of the use of violence, bribery, and extortion by the PF as a means to intimidate and buy off electorates ahead of elections.

The report also makes very specific reference to the PF’s unhindered abuse of the national broadcaster – ZNBC, for purposes of disseminating lies, propaganda and malicious innuendo against the opposition, while denying opposition political players equal access to the same media platform for purposes of sending out progressive messages of change and reform.

There are also reported and thoroughly documented accounts of PF operatives intimidating election observers in key polling jurisdictions across Lusaka and Copperbelt to undermine the process of monitoring the counting and verification of elections results at the polling station level.

Now, in all of these instances, no gunshots were fired; nor was there an actual shed of blood on a mass scale.

And now, we have unverified revelations of religious ritualism as having played a pivotal role in the outcome of a named general election.

Yet in all totality, what took place in 2016 was a classic coup d’etat against the collective will of the people. It must be noted, that occurrences of this sort also undermines the collective will of genuine supporters of the PF because they are denied an opportunity to see what their vote is truly worth because it is diluted by gross manipulation of process, public resources and personnel; and ultimately the disregard of all constitutional and democratic principles.

Today, we have a government that denies citizens pension benefits while it vehemently promotes, perpetuates, defends and shields grand political corruption by a handful of individuals relating to several billions of US dollars.

We have a government that is failing to deliver quality local healthcare and education while politicians and their families continue to enjoy the benefits of expensive private healthcare and education abroad, all paid for by the poor people of this country. And while majority Zambians are overtaxed, we have a government that perpetuates inequality by exempting public officials from paying their fair share of taxes, as well as continuing to apportion large sways of land to themselves in ecologically sensitive forests while excluding poor Zambians from accessing land.

Now, the good news is that Zambians have largely awakened to the reality of the torment of the sufferings we are collectively enduring, and we are largely in agreement that at the heart of all of this, has been a monumental failure of political leadership – with those holding the instruments of power only interested in exercising such power for the benefit of themselves, their families and business associates.

In 2021, our collective resolve must be to put an end to systematic dictatorship and restore to and for the benefit of the people, the power of a free and fair ballot.