CSO`S AND OPPOSITION ALLIANCE`S DEMAND FOR ECZ CHAIRMAN TO RESIGN ARE UNSUBSTANTIATED – SUNDAY CHANDA
….POLITICISING VOTER REGISTRATION IS UNCALLED FOR
Calls by a consortium of 20 civil society organizations and the alliance of political parties for Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairman Justice Esau Chulu to resign are unsubstantiated, polarized and uncalled for. We have taken note of the developments circulating in and on various media platforms this week to politicize the voter registration exercise and victimize officials mandated to handle the electoral process in this country.
For the benefit of the public, we wish to remind the CSO`s and the alliance of political parties that when President Edgar Lungu appointed Justice Chulu as ECZ chairman in 2015, his appointment was received with overwhelming support.
Among the statements issued at that time were those of GEARS chairperson MacDonald Chipenzi (heading FODEP in 2015) who said: “We are in support of the filling of vacancies because the commission was put in a very awkward position. The expectations on the trio are high because elections require level-headedness and fairness,” We are therefore surprised that today Mr Chipenzi would say Justice Chulu is incompetent to deliver a free and fair election in 2021.
UPND in a statement issued by Charles Kakoma in 2015 said; “it is good that President Lungu has filled the vacancies at ECZ to enable it to start preparations for next year’s tripartite elections. Mr Kakoma said UPND members of Parliament will support the ratification of Mr Justice Chulu’s appointment and the two commissioners because they are credible people.” UPND should tell us what has changed. We find it strange that today the UPND leader should stand up and endorse calls to weaken ECZ through the resignation of its internationally acclaimed chairman without any justification.
Justice Chulu has served at ECZ as commissioner from 2009 until April 2015 when he was appointed chairman. This simply means he has been involved in overseeing 3 presidential elections (2011, 2015 and 2016) all of which were deemed free and fair by local and international organizations including those CSO`s now calling for his resignation.
We must realize that the register ECZ has decided to discard also includes over 1 million deceased voters. It is therefore imperative that in expressing our concerns as stakeholders we do not kill the system or try to hijack the process to create an atmosphere of “a failed electoral process” in the hope of ascending to office illegally.
ISSUED BY:
Sunday Chilufya Chanda
Media Director
Patriotic front Party HQ
Lusaka
10/12/2020