THE Patriots for Economic Progress says it is saddened by the continued refusal by the Electoral Commission of Zambia to sponsor political parties to observe the ongoing printing of ballot papers in Dubai.
PeP leader Sean Tembo noted, in a statement, that so far the ruling PF is the only political
party that has managed to send representation to Dubai.
He said the ECZ approach of exclusion by circumstances is totally unacceptable as it is a well-known fact that only the PF can afford the cost of sending representatives for weeks to Dubai.
“This unfortunate situation is seriously undermining the integrity of the entire electoral process because the printing of ballot papers is a cardinal stage in the electoral cycle,” Tembo said. “Given the fact that our general elections are sponsored by taxpayers, ECZ has no credible excuse as to why they are refusing to sponsor representatives of opposition political parties to witness the printing of ballot papers in Dubai.”
He said one of the reasons why PeP advocated ballot papers to be printed in Zambia as opposed to Dubai, was because it would have made it easier for all political parties to witness the printing of ballot papers.
He said given that ECZ insisted on ballot papers to be printed in faraway Dubai, against the wishes of the majority political parties who are the key stakeholders, they must consequently foot the bill for political parties to witness the printing of ballot papers.
“As Patriots for Economic Progress, our considered view is that by only having the ruling PF party witnessing the printing of ballot papers in Dubai, the possibility of rigging of the upcoming elections is increased. With no opposition representatives present in Dubai, Zambians will not have any way of knowing whether additional ballot papers that can be used for rigging purposes, have been printed or not,” Tembo said. “The only sure way of knowing that the number of ballot papers printed equals the number of registered voters is by having representatives of opposition political parties present to witness the printing. But the Electoral Commission of Zambia is making this virtually impossible, for insidious reasons best known to itself.”
He said the PF and its government in general and the Electoral Commission of Zambia in particular that their actions so far have been sowing seeds of distrust of the electoral process and they should not be surprised when Zambians reject the outcome of the August 12 general elections.
“So far, the actions of ECZ have been designed to give the ruling PF party an unfair advantage over all other opposition political parties, which is contrary to the constitutional mandate of the Commission. Such conduct should no longer be tolerated by the Zambian people,” said Tembo.