ECONOMIC Freedom fighters party has applied for leave to commence judicial review proceedings in the Lusaka High Court against the decision of the Electoral Commission of Zambia to reduce the campaign period from three months to two months.
EFF has cited ECZ and the Attorney General in the matter seeking a declaration that the 2021 election roadmap was illegal and null and void.
The party is seeking an order of Certiorari to quash the published Electoral Commission of Zambia 2021 general election roadmap and compel the electoral body to prepare a new one which is rational and in conformity with the the law.
It is seeking an order to compel the Electoral Commission of Zambia to extend and immediately resume voter registration for an additional month so that the prospective voters were not disfranchised as a result of time.
EFF also wants an order compelling the Electoral Commission of Zambia not to discard the voters register used during the 2016 general election but simply update it and that people who did not manage to register in the just ended voters registration exercise should be allowed to vote if they appear in the 2016 voters register.
Party president Kasonde Mwenda in a notice containing statement in support of ex-parte application for leave to commence judicial review said that his party had exhausted its engagement with the Electoral Commission of Zambia over the matter but to no avail.
Mwenda stated that hat the Electoral Commission of Zambia did not have the legal authority under the Laws of Zambia to reduce the general election campaign period from three months as contained in the Electoral Process Act to two months two weeks which would commence on May 24, 2021 to August 11, 2021.
He contended that due to the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s irregular and unlawful voters registration election roadmap for the 2021 general elections, eligible voters failed to register to participate in the general elections and were disenfranchised.
Mwenda stated that the Electoral Commission of Zambia acted irrationally when it discarded the old voter register which had been compiled over a period of 10 years and instead opted to conduct voter registration in a month and four days during the rainy season which increased the possibility of disfranchising eligible voters.
He said the ECZ had not been conducting continuous voter registration since the last general election in 2016.
Mwenda indicated that the electoral body abrogated the Act when it directed that the campaign period would run from May 24, 2021 to August 11, 2021 and the extension of the campaign period was two weeks short of the mandated three months period in line with section 28(3) of the Electoral Process Act, No.35 of 2016.
“The Electoral Commission of Zambia’s roadmap target[ed] to register 9 million voters within a one month four days time-frame was irrational and unattainable. This target has failed as was confirmed with the paltry number of 7,020,749 voters registered in the just ended voter registration exercise,” Mwenda said.
He added that the Electoral Commission of Zambia was in breach of voter registration procedure as outlined in the Electoral Process Act when it pronounced that the voter registration would only run between October 19 to November 20, 2020.
“Although it (voter registration) was subsequently extended for four days, this stance is illegal as it abrogates part 3(7) of the Electoral Process Act of 2016 which guides that ‘The Commission shall conduct a continuous registration of voters’; whether registration is possible in a month or not, as the law is clear on the procedure of continuous registration,” said Mwenda.