GEARS SHOCKED BY POLICE ACTION TO DENY POLITICAL PARTIES SPACE TO SENSITIZE CHIRUNDU RESIDENTS ON VOTER REGISTRATION
By Patricia Male
The Governance Elections Advocacy and Research Services-GEARS- Initiative Zambia is shocked that police in Chirundu district of Lusaka Province are denying political parties to conduct voter registration sensitization activities.
Police in Chirundu have argued that the sensitization activities are purely for the electoral commission of Zambia and not political parties.
This was revealed during gears initiative’s ongoing community and stakeholders engagement meetings/activities on voter registration and issuance exercises in the district.
GEARS Initiative Executive Director MacDonald Chipenzi says the organization therefore finds this denial of political parties’ space to conduct sensitization meetings as absurd and illogical.
Mr. Chipenzi has since requested the Zambia Police high command to speak to their officers in the districts not to frustrate stakeholders and ECZ efforts in encouraging citizens to register as voters.
He has stressed that the aspect of voter registration sensitization activities is not a preserve of ECZ alone but all stakeholders’ political parties inclusive.
And GEARS Initiative has noted with great concern the poor turnout of voters in Chirundu in the ongoing voter registration exercise.
Cumulative records in the 3rd phase reveal that Chirundu District has only registered 12, 000 since the start of the exercise as compared to the 2016’s 26,000 voters.
PHOENIX NEWS