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De Urquiza calls for elimination of campaign violence

De Urquiza calls for elimination of campaign violence
By Moses Kuwema
Wed 07 Sep. 2011, 13:58 CAT

THE European Union Election Observer Mission (EU EOM) to Zambia chief Observer Maria Muniz De Urquiza, says any form of violence during the campaigns should be eliminated.

And EU EOM deputy chief observer, David Ward who on Saturday last week was quoted by the state owned and government controlled Daily Mail as saying it was possible for Zambia to hold free and fair elections on September 20 because planning has been good and because Zambia has held peaceful polls before, said he was misquoted.

In an interview yesterday, De Urquiza said the EOM firmly rejected any violence in the campaign.

"We feel violence cannot take part in this campaign and we condemn it. We feel that violent incidents must be eliminated of the campaign and we are happy with the agreement reached by the political parties in a communique in which the parties rejected electoral violence," said De Urquiza, who is a member of the European Parliament.

On the biased coverage of the public media, De Urquiza said the media was polarised but that the EOM was closely monitoring the coverage of the different candidates and the political parties and would make their recommendations at the end of the process.

"On the use of the state resources, we will have the information from the different stakeholders and also we will make our recommendations but we can only work on facts and not on allegations or rumours and then when we analyse the facts, we will make our recommendations. We will be in the country even after the day of elections in order to analyse every aspect and the complaints," said De Urquiza.

And addressing the press earlier, De Urquiza said during their observation
mission, they would particularly look at the legal framework, the election administration, the role of state institutions and civil society, the media, voting, counting and announcement of results and the overall environment in which the elections would take place.

She said the right to a free vote was a fundamental right which reflected the right to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of movement and free choice. She said those were the values which lay at the heart of the EU and its member states.

De Urquiza said the observer mission would also look at the freedom of assembly by political parties to express their views, the level of impartiality shown by the election administration, the way in which the state resources have been used, the franchise given to voters, the performance of the media and the fairness they displays to all candidates and political parties and the conduct of polling, counting and tabulation.

And Ward said the EOM always refrained from making comments on the electoral process in the countries they operated from and that they did not use terminologies such as "free and fair elections".

"I am afraid I was misquoted, I did not say there will be free and fair elections at all. I did a radio interview on one of the radio stations here and I was asked a question, ‘do you think there will be free and fair elections' and replied very clearly and you can look at the recording. We don't use terminologies such as free and fair elections," he said.

Ward said it was too early for the EOM to make judgments because there were a number of issues that had to be looked at before a conclusion was made.

"It's unfortunate I was misquoted. I know that happens sometimes but I think it is an unfortunate event," said Ward.

Labels: EU, MMD, POLITICAL VIOLENCE

posted by MrK @ 5:17 PM