Kambwili accuses ECZ of bias towards MMD

Kambwili accuses ECZ of bias towards MMD
By Ernest Chanda in Lusaka and Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Sat 30 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

ROAN Patriotic Front (PF) member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili has observed that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) will never gain people's confidence if election results continue to be disputed. Contributing to the ECZ 2011 estimates of expenditure in Parliament on Thursday, Kambwili urged the Commission to be credible and partial. He accused the Commission of bias towards the MMD.

“Our Electoral Commission of Zambia has lost the confidence of Zambians because every year in year out, elections are disputed. And when you have such a situation it means the problem is with the Electoral Commission,” Kambwili debated.

“It is extremely difficult to believe that even the ruling party can petition an election. This is a sign that even them they don't have confidence in ECZ. They petitioned Mufumbwe election, a sign that even them they don't have confidence in the Electoral Commission.”

He contended that ECZ had failed to deal with electoral violence and malpractices even if political parties report to them.
Kambwili charged that the Commission had many times failed to deal with complaints raised against the MMD.

"Our Electoral Commission has failed to curb electoral violence and fraud. There is electoral fraud going on under their nose and they know it. But they don't do anything, more especially if that fraud is committed by MMD; they remain mute,” said Kambwili. “In Mufumbwe it was in black and white that the violence was caused by MMD, and yet no MMD cadre has been arrested up to now; only UPND cadres. Members of the ruling party have even started beating up people at funerals, it's shameful!”
On the Commission's autonomy, Kambwili said it could never be independent for as long as the President continued appointing commissioners and directors.

He also questioned the relevance of intelligence officers in conducting elections.
Kambwili cited the just-ended Mupulungu by-election where Office of the President (OP) officers were demanding to see election results before they were taken to the ECZ.

And Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) executive director Charity Musamba asked the government to clearly state the role of the OP officers in elections.

Musamba was reacting to the reported electoral malpractices where an MMD cadre was caught attempting to vote twice and the presence of OP personnel in polling stations in the recent Mpulungu by-elections.

“Any practice that threatens the holding of free and fair elections such as people wanting to vote twice is a danger to democratic governance and it is a duty of the MMD government to aspire to attain proper standards in the conduct of elections,” Musamba said.

She said it was time to prepare for credible general elections saying the time to put everything in place was now.

She said Zambia had not had free and fair elections since 1991 when there was a shift from the one party state to plural politics.

“You know it’s not that the country cannot manage to hold free and fair elections, it is possible to hold free and fair, non-violent elections like we had in 1991 but there are just a few things that need to be done; government must give confidence in the Electoral Commission of Zambia to let the commission handle electoral issues independently,” she added.

She said it was important to let people choose their own leaders than one imposing themselves on the people through malpractices.

Musamba said it was wrong to make elections a preserve of the ‘toughees’ who were immune to violence.

She said right now people felt that it was not competitive to vote because of the manner in which elections were being conducted.

Musamba urged Zambians to continue working with organisations such as hers in sensitising the electorate on the importance of free and fair elections and stop treating elections as a tedious process.