ECZ SUSPENDS COUNTING OF ELECTIONS, HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED FOR VIOLENCE?
A KBN TV EDITORIAL
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has decided to suspend both the counting and announcement of election results across the country citing violence.
This is a first and highly unprecedented in the history of the ECZ. It’s not surprising that we heard stakeholders at the results centre complain that the electoral body made a unilateral decision without prior administrative engagement with them.
While the decision appears rational, it raises a number of deep concerns that the ECZ should address to calm public fears.
Firstly, the timing of the suspension announcement comes against the backdrop of the two presidential contenders releasing different messages.
President Hichilema posted on his Facebook page that he was receiving encouraging results and called for patience. If the results reaching him were encouraging, why would the ECZ act to the contrary?
On the other hand, NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile urged the ECZ to release the results without delay, claiming the PVT results were already in the public domain.
To our knowledge, a number of organisations were conducting similar PVT exercises and could share similar sentiments as President Mundubile’s. The said PVT results could be with the USA, the UN, the EU and the SADC.
It’s therefore imperative that ECZ swiftly concludes its constitutional mandate to announce the results and restore public confidence in the process instead of leaving things to speculation.
The other matter that ECZ should address is that if the basis for suspension is indeed violence, how many people have been arrested and in which areas of the country?
The nation is aware that Police officers are present at every polling station and therefore, the said violence should be managed and should not warrant suspension of both counting and announcement of election results.
If for argument’s sake violence was happening in Chawama or Matero, why should Chinsali voters or Kasama voters suffer and wait to hear the results because of the purported violence happening hundreds of miles away?
What the ECZ should address are reports of civil servants getting involved in the electoral process management.
The ECZ should also address public concerns that some members of the defence are being mentioned in helping with electioneering.
If these concerns are true, does it mean ECZ is understaffed or logistically challenged? Surely there must be an explanation to these questions. It’s not like ZAF who can help to airlift ballot papers from far flung areas. This is understandable as an exception.
A fundamental question that ECZ must also answer and assure the public is when you suspend counting and announcement of results, and tell poll agents to leave the polling stations, who will man those ballot boxes and what measures have you put in place to secure the integrity of results?
Lastly, when will this suspension be lifted?