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Clinton’s challenge on free elections timely - AVAP

Clinton’s challenge on free elections timely - AVAP
By Patson Chilemba
Mon 13 June 2011, 07:00 CAT

HILLARY Clinton’s challenge to hold free, fair, transparent and violence-free polls is timely advice to Zambians, especially those in leadership, says Bonny Tembo.

Commenting on US Secretary of State Clinton’s challenge to President Rupiah Banda, opposition leaders and all Zambians to hold free, fair, transparent and violence-free elections this year, Tembo, who is Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) director, said those in power should take most of the challenge because they controlled institutions which conducted elections in the country.

“In fact, it’s timely advice to Zambians especially those who are leaders in power, Rupiah Banda and MMD. And it’s a pity that Clinton doesn’t know that the institutions in place are being abused by the party,” he said.

Tembo said there were still a lot of contentious issues which needed to be addressed before the nation could hold credible elections.

He said the provisional voters roll had a lot of mistakes and discrepancies which needed to be corrected.

“We have people who were born in the 1800s. There are over 200 people in one polling station in Luapula who were born in 1800. Now is it possible that we still have people who were born in the 1800s among us? We have seen names of people missing in the voters register and yet these are people who voted in 2006. The field is not yet levelled,” Tembo said.

“If we have to have free and fair elections, we must ensure that all the benchmarks that are meant to bring about fair elections are in place. We need to have confidence in the public media. We need to observe the Electoral Code of Conduct and the electoral Act and the Public Order Act.”

He said the one-party syndrome of “the party and its government” must be done away with because Zambia was now a multiparty state.

He said the voters register should be accurate and accepted by all because going by the current one, a significant number of voters would be disappointed on polling day, especially those who had not verified their details.

“We have problems like double registration and we have 12,392 people who are sharing the invalid NRC National Registration Card number, the number 111111/11/1. We need to have dialogue between the ECZ and all stakeholders to look at all the contentious issues. If we are to talk about peace, we have to invest in peace,” Tembo said.

He said the country was still very far from holding fair elections.

“The voters register is still in a mess. There is the manipulation of the public media and public resources. Issues of manipulating chiefs, village headmen to endorse candidates, there are issues to do with parallel vote tabulation PVT which the government considers criminal,” said Tembo.

“All these show the levels of desperation. We must have a reduction in the levels of desperation in order to say we are ready for fair elections because there is this ‘must win’ strategy, to say we must win at all cost. Politicians don’t own the voters.”

Speaking during her joint media briefing with President Banda at State House in Lusaka on Friday night, Clinton said political leaders were answerable and accountable to their people and not the other way round.

She said candidates might express passionate differences in campaigns but they must accept the people’s votes and join together for the sake of the country.

She said Zambians had sent a powerful message to Africa and the world when they adopted multiparty democracy in 1991 and had another opportunity to set a model for the rest of the world in further its democracy through peaceful, free, fair and transparent elections.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, AVAP, BONNIE TEMBO, HILLARY CLINTON, VOTER REGISTRATION

posted by MrK @ 6:29 PM