Rupiah has no mandate to declare PVT illegal - Milupi

Rupiah has no mandate to declare PVT illegal - Milupi
By Florence Bupe
Sun 20 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has no mandate to declare the parallel vote tabulation (PVT) system as illegal when its illegality is not declared under the law, says Charles Milupi.

In an interview, Milupi, who is Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) leader, said Zambia was a country guided by laws and no individual, regardless of their position, had the right to declare something illegal outside the law.

“As a country of laws, no one has the mandate to declare something illegal. Anyone who wants to do that should clearly quote the law,” Milupi said. “Parliament is the only body that enacts the law and not even the President has the mandate to create new laws to suit him.”

Earlier last week, President Rupiah Banda threatened that those intending to conduct PVT would be arrested because it was a crime.

Various stakeholders in support of the PVT system have criticised President Banda's threats and challenged him to cite which part of the law criminalises the systyem.

Milupi said many people have conducted parallel vote tabulation in every election since the introduction of the multiparty democracy in 1991.

“If PVT is criminal, then what's the point of having election monitors in polling centres? Everyone knows that Mbita Chitala conducted PVT in 2008 and that is how the MMD knew they were trailing before the official results were announced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ),” he said.

Milupi said PVT was an excellent practice and wondered why the ruling MMD was opposed to the system.

“Only those with the intent of rigging are opposed to the parallel vote tabulation. I want to urge all stakeholders to tabulate election results to lessen the temptation of manipulation of votes,” he said.

Milupi said opposition political parties should work together to devise mechanisms that would counter rigging of election votes.

And Milupi said the ECZ should be neutral and implement the desires of the majority of Zambians.

“The people calling for PVT are ordinary Zambians and those of us intending to contest. All the presidential candidates, except one (President Banda), want PVT. ECZ should not be the ones to decide this issue for us,” said Milupi.