By Laura Miti
Patrick Kangwa’s confirmation as Secretary to the Cabinet is great for the country. Brilliant man that. Not too sure about the appointments to the Electoral Commission, though.
I had hoped for an undoubtedly independent Commission. My friend and colleague MacDonald, for example is
one of the most knowledgeable Zambians on elections but too close to UPND for my liking.
I hope the other seats on the Commission are filled by truly independent individuals. We deserve to have a Commission that is not an active and emotional player in elections.
Talema na drama mwe.
At least he is knowledgeable
I am one of the people who hold Laura Miti in high esteem but at times she can be the most disappointing. Imagine the previous commissioners that we had, they were a disaster to this country to say the least and yet we never heard her coming out in condemning the appointments as she is trying to do now. In 2016 General Elections, Justice EC is on record announcing fake results and fake constituencies, e.g. he announced results from Chitulika constituency which is none existent, votes were more than voters in Lundazi constituency and some constituencies had their results announced twice or thrice. The crook from Uganda or wherever he came from had access to the totaling room to manipulate results in favour of the ruling party. We had some diplomats leaving their Missions coming home maybe three months before the elections to help the ruling party win the elections. All these things were happening in an open space and if we never saw them, we heard about them and Laura and others were quiet, why are they trying to be champions now? In my opinion, MacDonald is the right person for the job and with his vast knowledge in electoral issues, for the first time in Zambia, we shall start seeing politicians or parties being reprimanded for breaking electoral code of conduct whether they belong to UPND or not, that is good for our democracy, we want sanity in our electoral conduct.
@Citizen, Madam Laura Miti was a consistent and objective critic of the PF regime and suffered detentions and even physical harm. Maybe you never had the chance to read about her. On this, you cannot fault her.
What we want to see is the ECZ regaining it’s credibity in the eyes of all stakeholders. It is not about being knowledgeable. You can be knowledgeable and still be biased. It is also a question of perception. If Chipenzi is seen as a UPND cadre, some stakeholders will continue to question the independence of ECZ and its decisions.
Just because he sympathizes with UPND doesn’t means he is unqualified for the job…what matters is how he serves in his new role…if there is a pool of professional and independent people that don’t believe, belong or sympathize with any grouping …where is that pool at? We should not be held guilty by association…let our works been seen and then we can be judged by it..
LET PEOPLE LIKE LAURA MITI, NOT SABOYI, SPEAK SO THAT MACDONALD CAN HAVE AN INSIGHT INTO WHAT CREDIBLE PEOPLE EXPECT FROM HIM. IN FACT THIS APPOINTMENT, IF RATIFIED, WILL PUT PRESSURE ON CHIPENZI TO PROVE HIS NEUTRALITY AND I DO NOT EXPECT HIM TO DISAPPOINT ON THIS ONE.
He is a known UPND cadre