ELECTORAL Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chief executive officer Patrick Nshindano has disclosed that the printing of ballot papers will
commence as soon as petitions are despised of.
The nomination of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu as PF Presidential candidate has been challenged in the Constitutional Court on the basis that he is not eligible to contest.
His running mate Professor Nkandu Luo and other running mates have also been petitioned and the matters are yet to be determined.
Featuring on HOT FM Red Hot Breakfast show this morning, Mr. Nshindano also announced that 16 presidential candidates are expected to be on the ballot paper ahead of the 2021 General Elections. “Those who paid for everything and are expected to be on the ballot all things being equal taking into account the petitions. There are 16 confirmed candidates and once all petitions are disposed of, we will be able to kick start the printing of ballot papers assuming that everybody remains validly nominated,” he said.
And Mr. Nshindano said the reason the ECZ has asked political parties to submit the campaign schedules is to give chance to every political party to be in a particular area. “So that when they are in a certain area, we don’t have another Party going there.
You know when the two clash (UPND and PF) it’s usually a problem,” he said. Asked if it was the first time that the ECZ had asked the political parties to submit campaign schedules, Mr. Nshindano said in the past, the commission used to leave it to the police but it was not a function of the police. “We have taken over this role. We used to relegate it to the police to ask political parties to submit that to the police to manage it but we would get all these allegations that police did this and that and so on and so forth,” Mr. Nshindano said. He said the decision was about safe guarding, granting equal opportunity and space to all political parties.