Maravi

Eliminate barriers to voter registration, Ng’ona urges ECZ

Eliminate barriers to voter registration, Ng’ona urges ECZ
By Florence Bupe and Misheck Wangwe
Thu 24 June 2010, 08:40 CAT

MATERO Constituency Patriotic Front (PF) chairperson Morgan Ng’ona has implored the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to eliminate barriers to the execution of the voter registration exercise.

Commenting on the ongoing voter registration exercise which commenced on Monday, Ng’ona said some eligible voters were being turned away on grounds that they do not have a police report to certify the loss of their voters’ registration cards.

He said those seeking to get a police report were being requested to pay a sum of K22,500 to obtain the report.

Ng’ona said this would work against the bid to capture as many people as possible to register as voters in next year’s elections as most poor people could not afford to pay this amount.

“Those people who lost their voters’ cards are being asked to pay K22,500 to obtain a police report and this is frustrating the whole exercise. How many people in the compounds and villages will be able to produce this amount when they have many other competing needs such as food?” Ng’ona asked. “This exercise will be a flop if it is not managed well.”

Ng’ona suggested that more manageable measures should be instituted to verify the loss of previous voters’ cards in order to give the poor people a chance to register and vote in next year’s general elections.

And some of the registration centres in Lusaka showed improved turnout from those wishing to register as voters, while others still recorded low activity.
A check at Northmead Basic School revealed only a small number of people trickling in to register, although the situation was expected to improve.

And some junior police officers in Luanshya accused their superiors in the district of corruption in the selection of officers to accompany workers carrying out the continuous voter registration exercise.

The police officers talked to disclosed that some senior officers were assigning tasks that had allowances attached to police reserve personnel, sidelining qualified police officers.

The officers claimed that police reserves usually forfeit 50 per cent of the allowance to the superiors.

“Some of our bosses here have resolved to sideline uninformed police officers in the voter registration exercise because we don’t give them anything when we come back from the field. They have decided to give police reserves more opportunities in the voter registration exercise because there is an allowance,” complained one of the officers. “The police reserves remit about 50 per cent of whatever they are given in the field and we have been sidelined in this exercise because we refuse to give them money when we come back.”

The sources said some officers-in-charge were defying the circular that was sent to all police stations by the Inspector General of Police which stipulated that the police reserves were supposed to work for two hours per day.
They said it was unacceptable for the police reserves to be working long hours like full-time police officers and be given sensitive tasks such as accompanying voter registration officers in the field.

“Why should we be sidelined just because we refuse to share an allowance with the bosses? They are giving police reserves sensitive operations such as manning strategic institutions because there is a K350,000 and they expect you to give them 50 per cent of the money and we’ve been refusing. We want to bring it to the attention of the police command in Lusaka so that they can reprimand some of the bosses here,” the source said.

Labels: ECZ, MORGAN NG'ONA, VOTER REGISTRATION

posted by MrK @ 2:15 PM