SIMATAA PETITIONS ECZ, NSHINDANO FOR LYING THAT NEW VOTERS REGISTER IS READY AND AVAILABLE, WHEN IN FACT IT’S ONLY DUE IN JUNE!
With the official campaign ALREADY in progress, having started on 12 May 2021 as per Electoral Commission of Zambia calender, various political parties and stakeholders will for the first time in history be campaigning using expired data from the deleted 2016 register.
This came to light when newly adopted UPND Kamwala Ward 5 councillor, Mainda Simataa, who wanted the register, was turned away by ECZ officials who said the voters register will only be available in June due to low printing capacity.
“Please bear with us, we know we announced that the register is ready, but we have not started printing it. We want to print for the whole country, for all the polling stations registers in advance, so that when you come next time, we’ll serve you instantly. You just pay and we give you from printed stock. We’re telling everybody the same thing, the voters register is not available until some time in June when we would have printed in bulk”, said the official.
However Simataa was not satisfied with the response and has since petitioned ECZ CEO, Patrick Nshindano, accusing the CEO of misinforming the nation, and depriving public information with intent to delay, derail and disadvantage the opposition to go into campaigns without voters data.
ECZ CEO Patrick Nshindano last week announced to the nation via a press briefing, that the new voters register was certified ready, and available to all paid-up presidential candidates for free, and at a fee of K50 per polling station for other stakeholders. But that was a lie.