Maravi

Praying for peaceful elections

Praying for peaceful elections
By The Post
Thu 07 July 2011, 04:00 CAT

Why should so many of our people be concerned about peace during and after this year’s elections? On Saturday, there was a walk for peace procession in Chipata. What was it for? What necessitated it? To what should be attributed this fervent effort of our religious leaders and their congregations?

Simply to a reality: the reality that the nation is in danger, the reality that the nation is threatened. True as it is, difficult as it is, this knowledge should not discourage anybody.

It is a reality that we need peaceful elections. It is also a reality that there is a group of people who do not want to lose power at all costs and are ready to manipulate the electoral process to keep themselves in office. In stating this, we do not lie nor exaggerate. We have never lied to the people and above all, we will never withhold realities from the people.

As we approach this year’s elections, we must express concern regarding the frightening high levels of intolerance, intimidation, malice and lust for power.

In the present atmosphere of fierce competition and an unbridled character assassination campaign that Rupiah Banda and his minions are waging against everyone who they believe do not support them or is a political opponent, we need to remind the nation of the noble goals of elections. From a Christian point of view, the noble goals of elections aim at the promotion of the common good and the service of all the people.

Rupiah and his minions seem to view elections as a fight for survival and not a competition to serve. They have confused elections with a battlefield where the aim is to destroy the other.

We need to remind them that elections are for the good of our people and our country, and not for a political survival of Rupiah and his minions or of the MMD as a political party. If they understood this, they wouldn’t be doing the things they are doing that are necessitating our people to have walks for peace during and after this year’s elections.

If the spirit of the primacy of the common good were to animate Rupiah and his minions, no one would fear for peace during and after this year’s elections; we wouldn’t be seeing the slander of political opponents that we are forced to watch and listen to on ZNBC television and radio every day, the libel we read about every day in the Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail and the other irregular publications they churn out that leave the public dismayed and disheartened and afraid of what these elections might bring.

We agree with Bishop George Lungu that in an election, peace can only be sustained when elections are free and fair.

And indeed, such elections should not just be said to be free and fair but should actually be seen by everyone to be so – to be free and fair.

And as Bishop Lungu has aptly put it, this means creating a level playing ground for all stakeholders and making the entire electoral process as transparent as possible. But to have peaceful elections, certain conditions have to prevail, have to be put in place in our country and indeed in our hearts.

There ought to be a conducive atmosphere. All key stakeholders have to agree on the conditions under which elections are held. And all the contestants have to conduct themselves in a manner that does not put others at an unfair disadvantage. There ought to be transparency in everything concerning the elections, apart from the casting of the ballot itself.

This is so because democracies thrive on openness and accountability, with one very important exception: the act of voting itself. And parallel vote tabulation must be put in place so that citizens are confident that the results are accurate and that the government does, indeed, rest upon their consent.

When the elections are over, the losers must accept the judgement of the voters. But this is only possible if the elections were conducted in a manner that is free and fair and is seen by the citizens to be free and fair. Where this is absent, peace is threatened.

And it is this absence of what can be said to be conducive atmosphere, an atmosphere that can be seen to satisfy the conditions required for the holding of peaceful, free and fair elections.

Anyone who watches ZNBC and listens to the lies, malice, slander, calumny, hatred that Rupiah and his colleagues are sponsoring against their political opponents would easily come to a conclusion that peace is threatened and needs to prayed and worked for to avert an impending crisis.

Slander is not an acceptable way to campaign. And this is made worse by the fact that the institutions that are being used to slander and malign others are state owned ones, they are institutions financed by the taxpayer. This type of abuse cannot be accepted in any decent society.

And those who engage in such activities need to be taught a lesson – there should be no impunity. And at the end of the day, they will leave these institutions with very huge defamation claims. It is clear that they will not be able to legally defend the libel suits that will arise from the material they are broadcasting and publishing.

But they don’t seem to care because the money will not come from their pockets and by the time these suits crystallize, those running these institutions will be somewhere else. Libel suits in this country take a long time to conclude – three to four years – but the time comes when they are concluded and damages and costs have to be paid. This will certainly be an abuse of taxpayer’s money.

We therefore urge all our people to vote according to their conscience, in accordance with the highest human values without allowing themselves to be pressured or dictated to by threats, bribes, self-interest and so on and so forth. We also urge our people to reject violence in the strongest terms.

They should respect truth and their political opponents. They should learn to be tolerant with people who have different political opinions and affiliations. People can differ without being subjected to defamation, character assassination, lies, calumny.

To Rupiah and his minions, we would like to remind them that they cannot talk about free and fair elections while the present situation persists, and we challenge them to rectify this threat to our future, immediately. It is only that way that, after elections, Zambia will remain united and peaceful.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, CHIPATA

posted by MrK @ 4:58 PM