CSO’s PROPOSE 3 DAYS VOTER REGISTRATION EXTENSION
… says an elongated extension will render delivering other activities by ECZ impossible.
A Consortium of Civil Society Organizations has proposed a three day extension to the voter registration.
Addressing journalists in Lusaka YALI president Andrew Ntewewe who spoke on behalf of other CSO’S said an elongated extension will render delivering other activities by the Electoral Commission of Zambia ECZ impossible.
Mr. Ntewewe said there are so many other processes in the electoral cycle which include removing of multiple entries which may be identified, correcting the missing data especially fingerprints, inspection, independent audit and certification of the register.
“With the ending of the normal 30-day phase of voter registration process on 12th December. 2020, the expectation of stakeholders, including ourselves, was that the Electoral Commission of Zambia should extend the process to allow the few that have not registered to vote, this expectation was met when the Commission announced that the extension would be granted starting this Wednesday.,” He said.
“The current registration of 75 percent of eligible voters gives us faith that with a proposed extension of 2 to 3 more days, we capable of capturing the population, among eligible voters, that is active when it comes to voting,” He said.
And Mr. Ntewewe condemned the unbecoming behaviour of some church mother-bodies under the umbrella of the CCMG who, while professing to be neutral monitors, have continued to also take a partisan stance against or in favour of political players.
He said some of the statements issued by this so-called independent monitor of the electoral process show a clear bias.
” Some of their church leaders have already indicated they want to use the debt issue as a campaign tool against the Lungu administration while imploring their colleagues in the opposition to begin to state how they shall deal with the debt when they get into power,” He said .
” Unfortunately, the CCMG is heavily sponsored by foreign political interests to champion this kind of bias against political players while treating it as an independent monitor. The clear preference the CCMG in favour of one political player against another should be the source of concern to everyone who will be participating in the 201 elections,” He said.
The consortium has since called on citizens across the country to defend Zambia’s sovereignty. -Smart Eagles