RECONDITION THE ECZ, THOSE NOT PROFESSIONAL MUST GO – PANJI
By Christopher Miti
COLONEL Panji Kaunda says Electoral Commission of Zambia needs to be reconditioned.
About 54 parliamentary seats countrywide have been petitioned by losing candidates in the August 12 general elections.
In an interview, Col Panji said the increase in the number of petitions of the just ended election entails that there was something wrong with the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s monitoring system.
“I think that ECZ is going to be reconditioned as they (government) have done to the police. I think they can do something to the ECZ. We need people who are professional, those that are not professional must go,” he said.
Col Panji said for people to petition elections, it means something went wrong.
“Something went wrong, that’s for sure! If (the way the elections were conducted) is found to have been corrupt, then there is something wrong with the ECZ. They didn’t scrutinise or they didn’t monitor how the elections are supposed to be done,” he said.
“For example, Vubwi, a lot of Malawians and Mozambicans came to vote. Literally, we saw vehicles with Malawian number plates coming to vote in Vubwi Constituency. I saw vehicles with my own eyes bringing in Malawians to vote at my polling station.”
Col Panji said people have the right to petition the elections.
“You remember I complained at a certain time that there are too many voters in Vubwi who were registered. Obviously, some numbers might have come from across the borders,” he said. “Going forward, I think that ECZ must tighten their rules on elections and monitoring of elections properly because if this was done, there wouldn’t be so many people wanting to go to court.”
On the appointments of new defence and service chiefs, Col Panji said he had no quarrels with appointments because President Hakainde Hichilema appointed qualified people.
He hoped that those appointed, especially in the police service, learnt something from the activities of their friends.
“I hope they learnt something. Remember when swearing them, the President emphasised that they must follow the law. They should be non-political and not to be answerable to the politicians because they will end up in trouble,” he noted. “We warned them (those who were there) last time that it’s either you resign, if you don’t, the consequences will be on you. So what has happened? If those people did not do ABCD against the opposition, they would have been brought back. But they stayed on, carrying out the orders of the politicians.”
Col Panji said those that have just come in should ensure they live by the book.
“Those who are coming in, they should live by the book. They have a President who doesn’t want his citizens arrested for nothing. Let them look at what the law says. Simple as that,” said Col Panji.