Articles about voting issues in the Republic of Zambia.
Zambia’s main opposition Movement for Multi-Party Democracy said on Saturday it was pleased with a decision by the country’s top court that saved it from being dissolved. The decision by the high court a day earlier was “proof that there is justice in the judiciary,” said Chembe Nyangu, the MMD’s deputy national secretary. ”It is good that the high court has granted us the stay of execution and we know that this case will be heard in a fair way,” said Chembe. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has said ballot papers for the three November 24 Parliamentary by-elections will be printed by the traditional printers, Universal Printing Group (UPG) in Durban, South Africa. ECZ public relations manager Cris Akufuna said officials from the commission would soon leave for South Africa in readiness for the printing. Mr Akufuna said in Chongwe yesterday that the costing for the whole exercise would soon be consolidated now that nomination papers had been filed.
President Michael Sata recently said that this would be the last time Zambia would print ballot papers outside the country, as the task would be undertaken by Government Printers after it has been fully equipped. The by-elections are slated for Chongwe, Magoye and Nakonde constituencies. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia Chairperson Justice Irene Mambilima has cautioned the media to desist from publishing falsehoods and alarming statements related to this year’s tripartite election. Justice Mambilima says it is an offence for any media house to take such as path.
The ECZ Chairperson was referring to a story published in the press alleging that former commission Director Dan Kalale was seen at the Nakatindi hall at the Lusaka civic centre. Justice Mambilima has dispelled the article as a total fabrication and cautioned the media against dwelling on un substantiated statements. Read More »
Zambia’s Chief Justice is scheduled to swear-in veteran opposition leader Michael Sata as the country’s new president Friday. The electoral commission declared Mr. Sata, leader of the Patriotic Front (PF), winner of Tuesday’s presidential vote. He defeated incumbent President Rupiah Banda of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD).
Director of Elections Priscilla Isaacs said the electoral commission met its target of releasing the final results of the vote within the 48-hour deadline it set for itself. Read More »
Zambia’s High Court has barred three private media organizations from publishing speculative reports on the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, as the country’s electoral commission scrambles to finish counting votes ahead its self-imposed Thursday deadline.
The court ruled Wednesday that the country’s leading privately-owned newspaper, The Post of Zambia, and two other media outlets were not allowed to publish stories announcing preliminary results before the numbers were officially announced.
On Thursday, unidentified hackers attacked the website of Zambia’s Electoral Commission, posting a string of statements claiming that opposition leader Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front party was in the lead over incumbent Rupiah Banda of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy. Read More »
Partial results from Zambia’s presidential election show main challenger Michael Sata holding a lead over incumbent Rupiah Banda.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia said Wednesday that with ballot counting still in progress, Sata of the Patriotic Front party had captured about 42 percent of the vote. Banda of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy was second with 35 percent. Hakainde Hichilema of the UPND party was third with 18 percent.
… Scattered incidents of violence were reported Tuesday in the capital, Lusaka, but European Union election observers say the vote was conducted in a “correct” manner. EU chief election observer Maria Muniz described the election as fair and transparent. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has explained the delay in announcing election resultcentre that has been set up at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka.
ECZ Public Relations Manager, Cris Akufuna explained this morning that the Commission has not yet received consolidated results from any of the 150 constituencies in Zambia. ZANIS reports that Mr. Akufuna said the ECZ has however received results from some totalling centres from around the country but not the general total results from constituencies. He said results are announced only when total results from a particular constituency have been received and added. Read More »
Police say angry crowds threw stones and burned vehicles in violence that marred voting in Zambia.
Police spokeswoman Ndandula Siamana said that in one Lusaka neighborhood Tuesday, voters claimed they saw a man with pre-marked ballot papers. Siamana said a crowd burned the papers, as well as a truck and a small bar. A spokesman for the Electoral Commission of Zambia said the report of pre-marked ballot papers was not confirmed.
In a second incident in Lusaka, Siamana said voters angered because a polling station opened late threw rocks and set fire to five vehicles, among them a police car. No injuries or arrests were reported in either incident. Read More »
Various Stakeholders have commended the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) for the transparent manner in which the electoral process has been handled so far. Southern Africa Centre for Conflict Resolution and Disputes (SACCORD) programmes manager Boniface Cheembe said he was happy that the electoral process had been done in a transparent manner.
Mr Cheembe said he was happy that all stakeholders had been invited and were involved in the electoral process since the beginning of the exercise. He said SACCORD was also happy that ECZ had assisted in maintaining peace during the electoral process. Read More »
Zambia’s electoral commission is scheduled to begin a nationwide distribution of ballots Wednesday, ahead of the September 20 general elections. Director of elections Priscilla Isaacs says representatives of participating political parties will inspect the voting materials before they are distributed.
The ballot papers, which were printed in South Africa, arrived in the capital, Lusaka Tuesday. “The distribution will be done by road to the country’s 74 districts. It will start after we have verified that we have received all the ballot papers for the three elections for all the 6,456 polling stations,” said Isaacs. She adds that security officers will be aboard the trucks as voting materials are distributed. Read More »
An official of Zambia’s electoral commission says political parties and other stakeholders are monitoring the printing of ballot papers for the September 20 general elections. Chris Akafuna, spokesman for the electoral body, also called on Zambians to develop what he calls trust and interest in the electoral process ahead of the vote.
Akafuna said the electoral commission has implemented measures to ensure transparent, free and fair elections. “Apart from political parties,” he said, “we have representatives of civil society, the church, and law enforcement agencies monitoring the process.”
Some opposition political parties have questioned the printing of the ballot papers in South Africa. They also accuse the electoral commission of bias, while expressing concern that the September 20 vote could be rigged in favor of President Rupiah Banda’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). But, Akafuna rejects the accusations as unfounded. “Whatever the commission does is based on the provisions of the law,” said Akafuna. “We follow procurement processes according to the Zambia Public Procurement Authority and we seek their clearance, before we go ahead [with] any procurement, and that is what we did even in this case,” said Akafuna. Read More »
Ballot papers for the September 20 tripartite elections will be flown directly to Lusaka from Durban, Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairperson Justice Ireen Mambilima has said.
Justice Mambilima told journalists at a Press briefing held atUniversal Print Group (UPG) that the ballot papers would be flown directly to Lusaka unlike in the past when they used to go through Johannesburg. She said the UPG would make arrangements to charter a cargo plane which would deliver the ballot papers directly to Lusaka. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has called on the police service to realign itself to efficiently deal with concerns raised by all political parties without any bias.
ECZ Chairperson Irene Mambilima says the commission is concerned with allegations of laxity on the part of the police suggesting that they have a soft spot for the ruling MMD. Justice Mambilima observes that the law should be left to take its course regardless of political affiliation of the offender. Read More »
Members of the team constituted to monitor the printing of ballot papers for the 20 September general elections have started arriving in South Africa.
Electoral commission of Zambia (ECZ) public relations manager Cris Akufuna has told QFM in a telephone interview from South Africa that members of the team started arriving in Durban on Sunday and by press time others were expected to arrive yesterday. Read More »
The high success rate of filling in of nominations by different political parties point to a record number of presidential candidates in this year’s elections. The last highest number of presidential candidates was in 2001 which saw eleven candidates fight it out for plot one.
9 presidential candidates have successfully filed in for the race to plot one ahead of the 20th September elections. Only with the failure by Dr Cosmo Mumba’s NRP to participate in the presidential elections, and the withdraw by the ZDDM, the expected number of presidential candidates now stands at 15, from the total of seventeen who had shown interest to vie for the highest office in the country. Read More »
The opposition PF has asked the High Court to dismiss with costs the preliminary issues raised by the Attorney General, the MMD and the Electoral Commission of Zambia in a case relating to President Rupiah Banda’s parentage issue. According to submissions in opposition to the defendants’ submissions, Wynter Kabimba who sued in his capacity as PF secretary general, asked the court to dismiss the preliminary issues on grounds that they are misconceived.
In this case, Kabimba sued the Attorney General, MMD national secretary Major Richard Kachingwe and the Electoral Commission of Zambia claiming that the ruling party cannot by law sponsor President Rupiah Banda because his parents are not Zambian citizens. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia Chairperson Justice Ireen Mambilima has met the 2011 presidential candidates with a call for issue based campaigns.
Justice Mambilima said that the commission would like to see a change in the way political parties conduct their campaigns this year. She has told Presidential candidates to avoid dwelling on personalities and instead concentrate on issues affecting people whose votes they will be seeking on the Election Day. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) says it is ready to host the elections and is today set to announce the date for presidential and parliamentary candidates to file their nomination papers. ECZ chairperson Ireen Mambilima said in Lusaka yesterday that the electoral body has set the timetable for the commencement of campaigns.
Justice Mambilima told journalists that the ECZ will be objective and professional in conducting the elections as it has done in the past. “We have set the timetable for the nominations of presidential and parliamentary candidates which will kick-start the campaigns,” Justice Mambilima said. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia outsourced the printing of ballot papers for this year’s elections because the Government Printing Department (GP) required about K44 billion to be equipped for the job. This is against the K1 billion which is in the budget.
ECZ director Priscilla Isaac said in a statement yesterday that K43,897,966,174 is needed to fully equip the department to carry out the job.
She said the commission was left with no alternative but to outsource the printing of the ballot papers. Ms Isaac said the tender was advertised in daily newspapers for a period of four weeks and it closed on April 29, 2011, but the Government Printing Department did not apply despite being free to do so. Read More »
The Electoral Commission of Zambia ECZ has completed the correction of anomalies on the voter’s register. And the commission is finalizing the voter’s register in readiness for this year’s tripartite elections.
ECZ Chairperson Irene Mambilima says the voters’ register is now in its final stages. She was speaking in an interview with ZNBC News in Lusaka on today. Justice Mambilima says preparations for the elections are on course. Read More »
Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairperson Justice Irene Mambilima has maintained that the commission will not extend the voter verification exercise which came to an end June 12. This follows calls by political stakeholders for an extension to allow more registered voters to have their details verified before the final register is compiled.
Speaking in Lusaka today during the ECZ/political parties’ liaison Committee meeting, Justice Mambilima said the commission has little time left before the forthcoming tripartite elections and that extending the verification exercise will have a negative impact on the commission’s preparatory works. Read More »
Patriotic Front Kabwata Member of Parliament (MP) Given Lubinda has asked the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to stop being arrogant and heed to calls to continue verifying voter’s details.
Lubinda said the commission should extend the exercise to allow the electorate to correct their details so they will be able to exercise their democratic right on polling day. Read More »
The British government will spend 48.5 Billion Kwacha to help the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) deliver free and fair elections during this year’s polls.
British High Commissioner to Zambia Tom Carter says part of the money will also go towards enhancing democracy in the country. Mr Carter says the assistance which will be done through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will involve training of police officers to enable them handle elections in an effective manner. Read More »
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