PR MPs ARE ELECTED, NOT NOMINATED – JERE
Prominent lawyer Dickson Jere has clarified that Members of Parliament elected through Zambia’s Proportional Representation (PR) system for women, youths and persons with disabilities should be referred to as elected MPs rather than nominated MPs.
Mr Jere said the Constitution distinguished between MPs elected through the Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMPR) system and the 11 MPs who could be nominated by the President.
He explained that under the amended Constitution, the presidential vote determines the allocation of PR seats, meaning voters indirectly participate in determining the MPs who enter Parliament through the party-list system.
“When you go and vote in a Presidential election, you are actually voting for three categories on that single ballot,” Mr Jere said.
He said the PR candidates file nominations with the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), meet the prescribed qualifications and pay the requisite fees before being declared valid.
“Under Article 71 of the Constitution, the candidates under the PR system actually files in nominations to be picked as MPs,” he said.
Mr Jere said Article 47(1) further provided that elections to the National Assembly should be conducted under the MMPR electoral system.
“Election to the National Assembly shall be conducted under Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMPR) electoral system,” he said.
He explained that Zambia’s Parliament now comprised 226 constituency-based seats elected through the First-Past-The-Post system, 40 PR seats elected through party lists and 11 presidentially nominated MPs.
“In fact nominated MPs do not file nominations at ECZ!” Mr Jere said.
He said PR MPs were elected through a closed-list system, where parties submit lists of candidates and the names are made public after the polls, unlike open-list systems where voters know candidates before voting.
“The MPs in both system get elected albeit differently,” he said.
Mr Jere further noted that presidential votes were important in determining the number of PR seats allocated to political parties.
“The more votes the Presidential candidate gets, the more seats his party gets in Parliament,” he said.
He congratulated the candidates whose election under the PR system was validated, saying the distinction was important in understanding Zambia’s electoral framework.