First Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Namugala has ordered Republican Vice President Inonge Wina to update the nation on the on-going voter registration exercise.
Ms Namugala had ordered that the statement on the voter registration be given in the National Assembly by Tuesday November 17 2020 because of the vitality of the matter.
ZANIS Reports that Ms Namugala made the remarks in parliament today when responding to a point of order made by Monze Central Member of Parliament Jack Mwiimbu.
Mr Mwiimbu wanted to know whether the government was aware and what was being done about the challenges of manpower being faced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia to register voters in his constituency and other parts of the country.
“Madam Speaker, I raise on very important point of order this afternoon, as you may be aware, the voter registration by ECZ is ongoing but has been faced with a lot of challenges such as shortage of staff among others which is making people take a long time to access their cards, What is government doing to deal with such challenges I need a serous ruling on this matter,” he charged.
And in her response, Ms Namugala explained that due to the gravity of the matter and its value to the nation, immediately ordered the Vice President as leader of government business in the house to give a statement on voter registration in the country.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) commenced the voter registration on November 9 and will go on until December 12, 2020 with the target of capturing at least 9 million voters.
However, several stakeholders from the cross section of the society have bemoaned the slow pace of the exercise and called for expediting of the works.
One such stakeholder is Patriotic Front (PF) party that has expressed concern at reports from different parts of the country pointing to the slow pace in the on-going voter registration exercise.
PF Secretary General Davies Mwila implored the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), to urgently and effectively address all issues raised by different stakeholders, if the Commission is to meet its targeted number of registered voters.