Maravi

(DAILY MAIL) ECZ receives K267bn.

ECZ receives K267bn.
By KASUBA MULENGA and BRIAN KAYAYA

THE Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has received about K267 billion from Government and six international donors for financing various activities in next week’s presidential election. Government has given the elections body K231 billion while Finland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States of America (USA) have contributed about K36 billion.

Minister of Finance and National Planning, Ng’andu Magande, announced this at a signing ceremony between Government and UNDP in Lusaka yesterday. Mr Magande signed for Government while UNDP resident representative Macleod Nyirongo did so for the donors.

“The estimated cost of elections, that is for activities before, during and after elections by a number of stakeholders is nearly K300 billion. Of this amount, donors have so far pledged to provide approximately K36 billion,” he said.

Mr Magande said the financial resources that would be received from donors would be pooled in an elections trust fund to be managed by the UNDP.

He said the funds would be directly paid to ECZ and reconciliation of accounts would be done after elections.

Mr Magande said the UNDP would also sign separate bilateral agreements with donors and appealed to those that had not yet decided to support Government to do so.

“Under direct support, the funds will cover activities such as voter education, stakeholder consultations, procurement and logistics, training of electoral officers and party or candidate agents,” he said.

Post-election support would provide for collating lessons learnt during presidential elections and inputting some of the lessons into the on-going constitution review process.

“In this regard, the financial resources under this support will go to activities such as the lessons learnt exercise, Electoral Commission internal review and post-election stakeholder working sessions,” he said.

Mr Magande said the financial assistance would go a long way in helping ECZ to discharge its mandate and responsibilities fully.

And Dr Nyirongo said the financial assistance to Zambia was a response of donors to a request by Government.

He said the project document signed yesterday was a practical step from donors to implement the Paris Declaration on aid.

“Indeed, we have a national programme and ownership, national budget and a coordinated cooperating partner response,” he said.

Dr Nyirongo said donors had seen that harmonisation of support had satisfactorily helped ECZ to save time when dealing with donors and were able to concentrate on their core tasks in a tight time schedule for organising elections.

He said the project development process had also resulted in open dialogue with ECZ and the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.Dr Nyirongo commended the ECZ and Zambians for striving to improve the country’s electoral process.

Meanwhile, the ECZ says it has met its targets with all logistics in place ahead of the October 30 elections.

ECZ chairperson, Florence Mumba, said yesterday in Lusaka that what was remaining was for the delivery of ballot papers and the remaining election materials to the 72 districts.

She said the commission’s preparations for the elections have to some extent been organised under pressure due to false accusations and wild claims by some stakeholders.

Justice Mumba said although it was the mandate of the ECZ to deliver a credible election, all stakeholders have a responsibility to abide by the law.

“I must emphasise that the commission cannot deliver a credible election without the support of voters, political parties, media, civil society and all stakeholders in the election process,” she said.

Justice Mumba said the ECZ would continue to perform its duties within the provisions of the law, no matter how much pressure it endured.

She appealed to all stakeholders and the public to allow the commission and its officers to do the work they are qualified to do without intimidation or undue pressure.

She said Zambians should acquaint themselves with the polling procedure to allay any fears that stakeholders and the public may have about the process.

She said contrary to reports that the commission had removed 400,000 voters from the voters’ register that was certified in 2006, the commission corrected the omissions immediately after the 2006 elections.

“All the participating political parties have been provided with a full set of the voters’ register for use by their polling agents who should be stationed in the polling stations from the time they open at 06:00 hours and close at 18:00 hours on election day,” Justice Mumba said.

Labels: DONORS, ECZ, ELECTIONS

posted by MrK @ 4:22 PM