Maravi

Election monitoring

Election monitoring
By The Post
Thu 04 Mar. 2010, 04:00 CAT

GOOD elections require the intelligent and responsible participation of all voters.
To have peaceful, free and fair elections, certain conditions have to prevail in our country and in our hearts. There ought to be a conducive atmosphere. All the major players, including the voters themselves, have to agree on the conditions under which elections would be held.

The contestants and their supporters have to conduct themselves in a manner that does not put others at an unfair disadvantage. There ought to be transparency in the organisation of elections. Constructive dialogue should be encouraged at all times on key electoral issues, such as the constitution, the electoral Act and voter registration. All political parties should have fair access to publicly owned media, and the media have a duty to report political campaigns fairly and accurately.

In the light of these necessary conditions, we are delighted to learn that the Catholic Church has launched Caritas Zambia 2011 election strategy that will enable it, for the first time, to take part in the monitoring of elections in our country.

Launching this election strategy, Zambia Episcopal Conference secretary general Fr Joe Komakoma explained that the role of the church in its involvement in the electoral process was to promote good governance and ensure that our people start voting for credible leaders who would develop the country.

Fr Komakoma went on to further explain that the issue of elections has remained contentious in Zambian politics due to lack of confidence in the electoral process; and that the aim of their elections strategy is to ensure that there were effective and acceptable electoral roles and practices in place which were adhered to by all stakeholders to rekindle citizens’ confidence and participation in the electoral process.

There’s need for increased civil society participation in the monitoring of elections because, as Caritas Zambia has correctly observed, there are gaps in our current electoral roles which are often, if not always, unfairly exploited with the consequence of reducing the quality of elections and democratic governance in our country.

And this is compounded by the persistent lack of government commitment to implement, not only the recommended means to ensure equity in the electoral process, but also political will to implement its own developed policy guidelines. There is need for civil society organisations to put pressure on the government and the ruling party and make them realise that they have a serious responsibility, as facilitators of elections, to ensure that the concerns of all key players are adequately addressed.

Clearly, the Catholic Church is joining the election monitoring through Caritas Zambia, not to support or discredit any political party, but to bring the light of the gospel into our decisions as citizens and as voters and to allow God to “lead us beside still waters and restore our souls”.

The most important political right or privilege is the vote. Today the vote is a serious issue. Whether our country will have good or bad laws, an upright or inefficient administration depends on the voters. Therefore, we should ensure that whatever elections we hold are for the good of our people and our country, and not for the political survival of any individual or political party.

Voting constitutes an indispensable contribution towards the life of the nation. And for this reason, there’s need to ensure that the will of every citizen who participates in an election is respected and made effective. One’s vote must always go to the candidate one has voted for; and the candidate who tallies the highest number of votes must always be the winner of an election.

This is very important because elections and the votes cast in them are the principal mechanism for translating the consent of the citizens, of the voters into governmental authority. We, therefore, need to do everything possible to ensure the protection of the ballot box and that the tallying of the vote totals is conducted as openly as possible, so that citizens are confident that the results of elections are accurate and that the government does, indeed, rest upon their consent.

This is not possible to ascertain if electoral malpractices are permitted, if the results of voting are not accurate. To ensure this, good election monitoring is a must, especially in our circumstances where citizens do not have all the confidence in the electoral process and seriously doubt the outcome of elections.

We need to improve the quality and extent of election monitoring. Where the quality of election monitoring is high and when all polling stations are adequately covered by election monitors, the possibility of electoral disputes reduces significantly. We have continued to have problems with our elections because the quality of monitoring has been poor.

Electoral malpractices have been proved after the elections in our courts of law, resulting in the nullification of some results. If there was quality monitoring at all polling stations and in all circumstances, the number of electoral disputes going to our courts would be very low, if not nil.

There are many areas where election monitors have not been reaching. And in these areas electoral malpractices have taken place without hindrance, unabated. We have had many polling stations where political parties, including the ruling party, have failed to have representatives. Given the dishonesty that characterise our elections, this is dangerous and should not be allowed to continue.

We hope Caritas Zambia will endeavour to send quality monitors to areas where others don’t reach or have not been reaching; to far-flung areas. If this happens, disputes over the rural vote will reduce and those who deserve to win will justly and fairly win. We need elections where the candidates get the votes they deserve and no more or less.

We also hope that Caritas Zambia will put reasonable emphasis on the other aspects of the electoral process other than just those of the voting day. The process of voting is far longer or bigger than just the act of casting a ballot.

The process of elections start far much earlier than the voting day itself. It covers the issuance of national registration cards, the registration of voters, the issuance of voters’ cards, the printing and distribution of ballot papers, the number of polling stations and the distances between them, the time polling stations are opened and closed, the counting of the votes, the announcement of the results, the swearing in of the winning candidates, and so on and so forth.

All these aspects are a very important component of an electoral process and all need to be monitored closely if we are to have truly free and fair elections whose results are accepted by both the winners and the losers. This is a lot of work requiring large numbers of people and resources. We therefore hope there will be generous donors who will be willing to make fine use of their deep pockets to finance the election monitoring activities of Caritas Zambia.

This will definitely also call for very high numbers of volunteers to assist the work and efforts of Caritas Zambia. These initiatives, these efforts deserve the support of all citizens of goodwill and of donors who wish our country all that is best in its governance.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, CATHOLIC CHURCH, ELECTIONS, POLLING

posted by MrK @ 7:56 PM