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APNAC writes to ECZ over Rupiah’s access to public resources during campaigns

APNAC writes to ECZ over Rupiah’s access to public resources during campaigns
By Agness Changala APNAC
Tue 31 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT

Zambia has submitted to Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) their concerns on President Rupiah Banda’s increased access to public resources during campaigns, saying this disadvantages other contesting parties.

Making submissions on the Electoral Code of Conduct in Lusaka yesterday, African Parliamentarian Network Against Corruption (APNAC) Zambian Chapter president Given Lubinda said the network was not against the office of the President being availed certain facilities but that this needed to have certain limits placed on it.

“The Mufumbwe by-election may be a case in point at which it is not only the number of government facilities such as planes and vehicles but the personnel directly or indirectly drawing public resources. In addition, while the electoral regulations do provide for incumbency, this is not extended to the vice-presidency, yet it is now common knowledge that office of the Vice-President has had to use public resources, including in local government by-elections,” he said.

Lubinda attributed the problem of contested polls to the high incidence of perceived or indeed actual electoral corruption and fraud.

He said in most cases, there had been accusations and counter accusations on the role that had been played by competing parties in inducing voters.

Lubinda said levels of flouting the regulations had continued and had reached alarming and worrying levels. He said violence and exchange of money and material goods had become so common in areas where elections were being held.

Lubinda observed that despite regulation (2) providing for the commission and any member of the Zambia police force to enforce the Electoral Code of Conduct, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) were not cited.

He said besides the lack of weak enforcement, the stipulated penalties in the Regulations and Electoral Act were not only too low to deter breaking of the law but were also inconsistent.

“A clear example is Regulation (7) 2 which provides for a conviction or a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred penalty units about K450,000 when in Article 128 of the electoral Act a penalty of around 20,000 units [3.6 million is provided,” Lubinda said.

He said it was ironic that known offences such as those prohibited in the Electoral Code of Conduct were low in comparative terms to those in the electoral Act while the opposite should have been the case.

Lubinda submitted that the penalties in the Electoral Code of Conduct be harmonised with those in Article 128 of the electoral Act, and that it should be the minimum.

He said there was need to categorise the offences based on severity and appropriate penalties ascribed as such.

Lubinda illustrated that the penalty of removal of party posters in the current law attracted the same penalty as that of defamation of a person’s character or indeed committing of violence during the election period.

He said the matter was serious and needed to be addressed, and recommendations to this effect had been made in their submissions.

And Lubinda said APNAC had submitted that announcement of results take place within 48 hours of conducting elections.

He said while appreciating the logistical challenges of accessing results from remote areas, it should not be the reason for inhibiting the nation of timely results.

“If anything, there will be need to invest and develop capacities for the information to be transmitted to ECZ,” Lubinda said.

He said amounts of money utilised by political parties and candidates in elections needed to be capped.

“Even if it takes long for the government to decide on funding political parties, the capping of funds in the Electoral Act and Regulations should be an immediate action,” said Lubinda.

“This will level the playing field of all stakeholders.”

Labels: CORRUPTION, GIVEN LUBINDA, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:35 AM