THE ELECTORAL PROCESS ACT COULD BE THE ULTIMATE MINGALATO AGAINST OPPOSITION PARTIES – KBN TV EDITORIAL

THE ELECTORAL PROCESS ACT COULD BE THE ULTIMATE MINGALATO AGAINST OPPOSITION PARTIES

A KBN TV EDITORIAL

When the Electoral Process Act was first instigated by the passage of Bill 7, most stakeholders have not paid much attention or taken keen interest to engage and interrogate its contents as they did with the hard fought and unpopular Bill 7.

Some of the proposed changes in the Electoral Process Bill might appear minor, logical and insignificant, but if they go unchallenged, could be more lethal to alter the political playing field and dent the long cherished electoral integrity.

Take for instance the proposal that the Secretary General of each political party should be the only official to sign the adoption certificate. The proposal sounds very harmless but we know that most of these Secretaries General can easily be bought and disappear at a critical hour when they need to sign that adoption certificate.

They are most likely to come back after the fact, and only apologise like we have seen in some quarters where those who voted for Bill 7, have come round to apologise and are being reintegrated into some Central Committee.

As a nation, we can’t rely on the good will and integrity of people as the ECZ Chairperson, Mwangala Zaloumis, suggested during her recent television interview. Rather, we must rely on credible and tested systems. Systems that prevent malpractice.  What ECZ is proposing is to create a system that aids mischief hiding the real motives behind the law.

Secondly, the proposed removal of the security stamp is not reform, it’s thuggery and must be rejected at all costs. The proposed removal of the security mark is a recipe for anarchy and mass rigging.  It should never be taken for granted. It’s better to have spoiled ballots caused by the carelessness of ECZ polling agents than to intentionally open floodgates of rigging.

There are also sentiments that the final text of the Bill might contain aspects that may not be too obvious right now. Some stakeholders fear that the final product might arm ECZ and the Registrar of Societies with new sweeping powers to determine which political party genuinely held a convention in line with constitutional provisions. These fears seem to suggest that under the new Electoral Process Act, ECZ could block some parties from appearing on the ballot.

These concerns and speculation may appear unfounded but the slippery text witnessed in the final content of Bill 7 on how to share parliamentary seats under the newly introduced proportional representation against what was recommended, gives credibility to these concerns.

Lastly, the sequential timing for the National Assembly to go on recess and only to come back to pass the Electoral Process Act before dissolution of parliament is acutely dangerous for political parties who are choosing special purpose vehicles now or going to the convention at this eleventh hour.

There is an inherent danger that political parties that are still in decision mode may have no time to ensure  their convention outcomes are effected on the party register before nominations.

Given the happenings at the Registrar of Societies, there are no guarantees that going to the convention now would guarantee new office bearers to reflect on the party’s register. We say so because we are aware that to this day, some political parties that held their conventions last year, still don’t have new changes to office bearers reflecting on their registers held at Registrar of Societies. If such delays are not deliberate, what is it?

Our research reveals that it took for example, nine months of relentless pushing and following up for Citizens First to have its  register updated with Harry Kalaba reflecting as Party President.

At this rate, with only two months to nominations, if the  UPND chooses to sneak in a clause which requires sponsored party Presidential candidates to reflect as office bearers on the register at the Registrar of Societies, very few aspiring presidential candidates will be on the ballot this August.

If Bill 7 is anything to go by, the opposition may have been caught napping with the door to the 2026 elections closing right in their faces like a biblical story of God telling Moses, you can see the promised land, but you will not enter.

There was so much ample time for advocacy to stop Bill 7, but it still went through despite relentless opposition from the Church, Civil Society Organizations, the Law Association of Zambia and other stakeholders.

Today, we are literally talking about weeks before the passage of the Electoral Process Act which will signal the beginning to filing in of nominations immediately after that. Very clearly, the danger of mingalato is lurking in the shadow of the Electoral Process Act consultations.

Members of Parliament have demonstrated before that they are compromised; they showed the nation their true colours, they can be bought and apologise later. Be rest assured, unless something drastic is done, the Electoral Process Act could be the last straw to break the carmel’s back of democracy in Zambia.

We can predict with certainty that if some clauses find their way in the final text of the Bill to become law, some aspiring presidential candidates who are not in the register at the Registrar of Societies may not be on the ballot.

Now that’s catastrophic! Like we said, it took Citizens First President Harry Kalaba nearly a year to be included on the register as an office bearer. If elections were called today under such dribbling, at least Kalaba would be on the ballot.