ECZ erred when banning questions during briefings

Judge Chulu

The Young African Leaders Initiative – YALI has condemned the  Electoral Commission of Zambia’s decision to not to allow stakeholders to ask questions on the presidential results it is announcing.

YALI governance advisor Isaac Mwanza in a statement on Saturday stated that despite their disapproval of the confrontational manner United Party for National Development legal counsel Martha Mushipe conducted herself, YALI found the decision by the elections body to ban questions extra punitive against other stakeholders who were genuinely interested in having matters clarified before the Electoral Commission of Zambia could declare anyone winner of the competitive election.

“The Commission must appreciate that Zambia has embraced multipartism where different opinions, including those who may opt to use emotions or sarcastic language, must be tolerated and we as such think the Commission must move with its well-set and long time tradition where the Commission has been able to allow stakeholders to raise questions on issues they may need clarity on,” Mwanza stated. “YALI also calls on the Commission to quickly honour its commitment to publicise the outcome of the referendum from constituencies alongside announcement for presidential results as was promised by ECZ director Priscilla Isaac.”

He further wondered why the ECZ had not briefed stakeholders on the arrest of PF-linked man, Samuel Chavula, who was found in the server room at Mulungushi International Conference Centre on Friday.

“We are also disturbed that the Commission is constantly avoiding informing the nation on the arrest of the man who was found in their server or IT room despite the fact that it has taken over 24 hours. To remove any such suspicion that the vote has been tampered with, the Commission may do well to inform the nation on that matter and, most importantly, to submit the requested Gen12 form, which political players have requested,” Mwanza stated.”The Commission must consider not proceeding to declare anyone a winner in this election before they can hand over these forms to stakeholders for them to reconcile the vote. The Zambian Constitution demands that electoral disputes must quickly be resolved and the Courts must be seen only as a last option when and if the Commission fails to handle these disputes.”