Edgar Lungu says the challenges facing the voter registration exercise if repeated during elections can give rise to chaos.
Edgar says they will engage the Electoral Commission of Zambia over the challenges facing the voter registration exercise.
“We will engage Electoral Commission of Zambia why there has been these delays and difficulties (to register as voters). Some people are spending two, three, days fighting to get a [voter’s] card and I think that’s not the way it should be. It should be the easiest of the process, so we will engage them to find out the challenges so that we can improve and come election time next year it should be plain sailing because what we are seeing if repeated during election time, it can bring rise to chaos. If this inefficiency we’ve seen in the voter registration is replicated during election, people become suspicious and accuse each other of rigging and it can bring rise to fragmented society which can result in chaos,” says Edgar.
The consequences of the apparent inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s approach to voter registration exercise were clearly pointed out by the opposition and other stakeholders. But they were not ready to listen to anyone else other than their masters in the ruling party and its government. They were actually very arrogant about it – they knew it all.
They were told it won’t be possible for them to register nine million voters in one month. But their response was if they can handle so many voters in one day how can they fail to register nine million in one month?
They were joined by their political masters in this argument.
And they think the Zambian people should be sympathetic to their inefficiencies and ineffectiveness? They are joking! They don’t deserve any public sympathy.
They wasted time waiting for the passing of Bill 10 before starting the voter registration exercise. They have themselves and their political masters to blame.
They have no choice but to extend the voter registration period.