UPND challenges ECZ
UNITEDParty for National Development (UPND) has challenged the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to redeem itself by ensuring that the ongoing voter registration exercise becomes successful.
The party says that as it stands, the exercise was not meeting stakeholders' expectations.
Provincial Information and Publicity Secretary Neto Halwabala has told the Daily Nation in Livingstone that the last few days since the exercise started have been a disaster.
Mr Halwabala charges that his party has continued to monitor and interact with relevant authorities and it has been discovered that the process was very slow.
"From the past three days, we have had negative experiences with this important exercise and we urge the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to redeem themselves from further embarrassment after what the stakeholders religiously advised that it is not possible to meet 9 million voters target in one month," he said. "The voter registration exercise has been a total mess and we expected some improvements, but the situation is not getting any better," Mr Halwabala said.
"We have continued to tour the province in assessing the on going voters registration and our findings are not different from the day the exercise commenced on Monday
Instead of coming up with long term solution, ECZ in some districts is resorting to work from 05:00 hours to
11 hours when the weather is a bit cool and 15 hours to somewhere 21:30 hours in the evening to recover the lost hours.
"We urge them to just clean up on the old register than to waste time on something new which will not help them to meet their nine million voters target," he said.
Mr Halwabala noted that the Electoral Act number 35 of 2016 is clear and it states that "there shall be a continuous voter registration".
However, Mr Halwabala said this was not the case with ECZ.
"We also suggest that the Commission increase from one month to three months period of voter registration.
He claimed that the second hand domestic machines which officers are using are heating up and must be sent back to the supplier and bring genuine industrial machines which will withstand the temperature.
"As UPND in Southern Province, we therefore, hope that the ECZ will consider our workable solutions as the intervention by the party has already been sought," he said.