UPND Objects To ECZ Proposals For 2021 Elections

The United Party for National Development (UPND) has registered objections to a number of proposals put forward by the Electoral Commission of Zambia in advance of the 2021 General Election. 

Writing in a letter to ECZ Chief Electoral Officer Patrick Nshindano, the UPND’s Secretary General, Stephen Katuka, expressed concerns over the high nomination fees, 30 day voter registration period and the voters register. He also highlighted the printing of ballots in the United Arab Emirates and the ability for prisoners to vote as deeply troubling. 

Mr Katuka observed that the proposed measures would not only disenfranchise eligible voters, but also create a systematic barrier with the potential to undermine the holding of free, fair and credible elections.

“We reject the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) position to hold a 30 days voter registration as doing so will disfranchise many eligible citizens. Our view is that voter registration is supposed to be a continuous process. We reject the proposed nomination fees for the 2021 General Elections in that, in a democracy like ours, all citizens have the right to participate in the elections without systematic barriers like hiking of nominations fees,” Mr Katuka wrote. 

The secretary general also registered his party’s disdain for cancelling the voters register, as well as extending the franchise to prisoners. He argued that doing so would put opposition parties at a disadvantage owing to a lack of access to prisons. 

The ECZ has come under intense scrutiny ever since the dispute 2016 General Election, with stakeholders from across the political spectrum accusing the commission of conspiring with the incumbent Patriotic Front.