BY SIKAILE SIKAILE
ECZ,A CASE OF ARROGANCE LACED WITH LARCENY
The case of ECZ on voter registration and the whole management of the Electoral Process is one of Arrogance and Grand larceny against the Zambian people.The ineptitude of PF under Edgar Chagwa Lungu is epitomized in ECZ. ECZ by Constitutional provision is supposed to be an autonomous Electoral Management body functioning on a broad stakeholder consultation and engagement modus operandi. Against the better judgement of impartial experts and key stakeholders, they have levitatiously brought the entire nation to the brink of anarchy.
Who can we blame if the nation decided to react to the lawlessness created by PF and ECZ? ECZ has destroyed the Electoral Process by abdicating it’s Statutory functions to the tutorage of PF failure and mediocrity all sponsored byEdgar Lungu. There are exceptionally talented, qualified and patriotic technocratics at ECZ who can restore sanity and professionalism other than this trial and error no sense we see today.
At the beginning of the voters cards and NRC issuance and the discarding of the old register, key stakeholders appealed and questioned the feasibility of registering 9 million voters in the short time they had allocated. They opted to obey their master PF’s directive instead of the loud majority Zambians. They discarded the old register and ambitiously embarked on the impractical exercise to register the targeted 9million voters.Today, we are told that they have just registered slightly over 5 million voters. This is not coming as a surprise to anyone with even one functional sense. But why run a public Institution like a kantemba? PF desperation to retain power at any cost?
Wisdom guided but folly, arrogance and larceny prevailed over this debacle. Today, the PF and ECZ are naked and ashamed.
They have been caught in their tracheary. Their hope of survival now with all their tricks successively failing is demographic manipulation. Register as fewer numbers in opposition stronghold as possible and register as many voters in their strongholds, how possible is it for Chitotela to know votes in his constituency even before ECZ updates the nation.The opposition votes should be absorbed by their strongholds. This is more of the reason they are now vigorously flouting the Constitution to register voters.They failed to convict HH and their BILL 10 flopped lamentably.They desperately confused. Now through this sprint manipulation of the voter registration, they hope to tilt the numbers to their side by all means.
We are all aware of how the mobile NRC issuance has continued including the registration of underage children and foreigners reported in their strongholds.
Are Zambians going to accept this criminality?
Assuming they even reached 6million voters, factor in 50% voter apathy, it simply means that the fate of more than 18million Zambians will be decided by less than 3 million. ECZ should realize that they are fanning a fire that can alter the course of history. Zambians should not be taken for granted. They had all the past 4 years to prepare for a broad based Electoral transition built on consensus but cunningly, they want to do last minute outmaneuvering. Why are they flexing the patience of the Zambians?
Zambians called for the restoration of the old register but simply because this would complicate PF’s planned rigging, the entire ECZ had to Religiously flow with the bidding of their master. Now that they are caught pants down, what are they going to do. As proof that they are a PF extension, they are now backtracking.
The pressure has been mounted on Edgar Chagwa Lungu and he has issued a directive for extension. These are heartless failures. The whole process is understaffed creating further possibilities of error. How does one person work for 15 hrs non stop. The whole process is prone to massive typographical errors that may still disenfranchise many more people.
We want to strongly warn ECZ that should there be anarchy in this country we shall hold them accountable. We don’t want to see what happened in 2016 repeating itself next year, give the people of Zambia a credible election.
Our appeal to PF and ECZ is to simply own up and listen to the Zambian people. Restore the old register now! Realistically, an extension of even up to March 2021 with the current staffing will still leave out some potential voters. PF is sabotaging the Electoral Process using ECZ as a last hope survival antic.
SIKAILE C SIKAILE
GOOD GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
BY CIC PRESS TEAM