ELECTIONS ISSUES
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With Simon Kabanda
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GOVERNMENT’S PREPAREDNESS FOR AUGUST 2021 ELECTIONS
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As the country prepares itself for the presidential and general elections, which will take place on Thursday 12 August 2021, we wish to look at government’s preparedness for the exercise.
Last week we established that preparations for a next election begin when one election is over. The 2016 elections ended on Tuesday 13 September 2016, after the president-elect was inaugurated. Preparations for the 2021 elections were therefore supposed to begin the following day, 14 September 2016.
On Friday 21 October 2016, Government appointed a Commission of Inquiry to examine the voting patterns and electoral violence that had characterised various elections since the 2006 presidential and general elections of 28 September 2006.
Was this exercise needed?
Last week we established also that the first activity of preparing for a next election ought to be an elections post-mortem. Lessons learnt from past performance would then help to plan to do better in the next election. The Commission of Inquiry that government appointed was thus meant to carry out a post-mortem of the elections. This was an excellent move by government.
The Commission brought out far-reaching observations and lessons learnt from past elections and by-elections since 2006 presidential and general elections. On the basis of those observations and lessons learnt, the Commission made various recommendations, which were meant to be implemented in planning to do better in the 2021 presidential and general elections.
The Commission made a total of thirty-three (33) recommendations. Today we are looking at the first recommendation. We wish to examine how much government has done to implement the recommendation, in its preparations to do better in the 2021 presidential and general elections.
The recommendation reads as follows:
“Government should take steps to remove barriers to the participation of all citizens in the election process” (Report of The Commission of Inquiry into Voting Patterns and Electoral Violence, January 2019, p. xvi).
The Commission further proposed specific measures to implement this recommendation. One of the measures is as follows:
“The ECZ, in undertaking voter registration, should ensure that all eligible citizens are on the voters‘ register. Government should ensure that there is close collaboration between the ECZ and the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship, so that mobile voter registration is conducted after the mobile issuance of National Registration Cards or the two exercises are done simultaneously. This will ensure that citizens who have reached the voting age can register as voters for the immediate upcoming election (p. 174).
What steps has government taken to implement this recommendation?
We have observed that government has implemented this recommendation in REVERSE. While the recommendation was meant to promote inclusiveness in the electoral process, government has excluded many eligible voters from the electoral process. While this recommendation was meant to add more new voters into the voters’ register, government has decided to delete the voters’ register and come up with a totally new one, consequently excluding many duly registered voters from participating in the 2021 presidential and general elections.
Instead of ensuring that all eligible voters are on the voters‘ register, government has done the opposite.
The report of the Commission was tendered to government in January 2019. Government should have immediately embarked on taking steps towards implementing this recommendation. By February 2020, government should have embarked on mobile issuance of National Registration Cards and registration of voters simultaneously. Government should have begun to capture the youth who had reached the voting age into the voters’ register. On the whole government should have, by February 2020, begun to UPDATE the voters’ register.
Government has however neglected to implement this critical recommendation. This has therefore rendered the work of the CI an exercise in futility. It has been rendered a waste of time and a waste of resources.
What this implies is that government has not adequately prepared for the 2021 presidential and general elections.
On this recommendation “the Commission notes that elections must be inclusive to provide equal opportunities for all eligible citizens to participate as voters in selecting their representatives …” (p. 174).
Conversely, the 2021 elections are NOT inclusive. Many eligible voters have not been provided with the opportunity to participate as voters.
Government has deliberately taken away from its own people their RIGHT TO VOTE.
This is very sad.
(If you have any election related issue that you would like to be discussed on this column, kindly send a message to me either through sms, WhatsApp or email).
SIMON KALOLO KABANDA
Whatsapp: +260-761-206353
Email: shimwenya@gmail.com
29 March 2021
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About The Author: Simon Kalolo Kabanda is an Elections Monitoring Expert, with extensive elections monitoring experience since 1991.
He has also participated actively in the country’s electoral reforms.
SOURCE: The Punch ; For Investigative News & Analysis