ESAU Chulu has shown serious signs of oversight weaknesses at the helm of the Electoral Commission of Zambia which can plunge the country into chaos and must resign on moral grounds.
The ECZ has come under fire with its insistence to carry out online voter pre-registration and to also replace the current voters’ register with a new one with several stakeholders calling the exercise illegal only aimed at disenfranchising eligible voters working abroad and the poor people in outlying areas who have no access handheld electronic devices and computers.
Adding his voice to the issue, Mufulira senior citizen and social commentator Pepino Kashishi says judge Chulu who is head of the ECZ appears to be too easily bending to the wishes of some powerful forces.
“…to add voice to the concerns expressed by former secretary to the cabinet, Sketchley Sacika, over the conduct of judge Esau Chulu as presiding officer at the Electoral Commission of Zambia… Having known the judge as a highly principled person some years back, I feel embarrassed and terribly let down by his apparent failure to be on top of things at this critical governance institution under his watch,” Kashishi said. “There are serious signs of oversight weaknesses on his part going by the several controversial decisions by ECZ for some time now. He appears to be too easily bending to the wishes of some powerful invincible forces that want to gain undue advantage in the electoral process to secure their victory in the 2021 general and presidential elections. This is extremely dangerous as it has the potential to plunge this country into chaos.”
He said the general citizenry was tired of the manipulation of the electoral process and other abuses going on in the nation.
“People are simply tired and fed up with the ever increasing levels of mismanagement of the affairs of this country including manipulation of the electoral process. Let judge Chulu search his conscience and do the noble thing by resigning if he finds it difficult, for whatever reason, to manage this important national function in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations to enable Zambians express their own free will in the choice of their leaders without intimidation and/or manipulation which has now become the new normal in the conduct of elections in this country,” Kashishi added.
He said the actions of the ECZ were already undermining next year’s elections.
Kashishi argued that continuous voter registration includes cleaning the existing voters’ register to remove the dead and not to delete it like the ECZ was attempting to do.
“We are certainly headed for very serious trouble. It is difficult to understand, short of ulterior motives, how any serious political party leader, other than those that are benefitting from such electoral flaws, would disparage those that are trying to correct these anomalies some of them which are in direct conflict with the existing laws. Why restrict voters’ registration period to 30 days, for example, when the law provides for continuous registration?” wondered Kashishi. “And why discard the current voters’ register altogether and start a new one in the midst of serious resource constraints? Continuous voter registration includes or should include cleaning the register by, for example, deleting those that are deceased. Things are deteriorating to such dangerously low levels that even straight forward exercises like National Registration Card issuance are being deliberately complicated, including halting it in some areas, when it is a constitutional right. ECZ is making and/or condoning irrational decisions in the preparation for next year’s elections to give undue advantage to some political competitors. There is no denying this! Clearly things are not going well in this pre-election phase.”
On Tuesday when swearing in ECZ vice-chairperson Emily Sikazwe, President Edgar Lungu said the commission was undergoing a credibility test as the country approaches the 2021 general elections.
“Your decisions and actions as a Commission are what will safeguard your credibility. However, you should not lose focus in your work just because some stakeholders are accusing you of bias. Instead be firm but fair as you play the role of referee in the electoral process,” said President Lungu. “The current Commission is not the first to be accused of conspiring to commit fraud in the electoral process and it will not be the last. The fact is conspiracy theories will be there as long as some stakeholders fear the prospect of losing.”