ECZ, behave – Pilato

CIVIL rights activist and poet Chama Fumba has asked the Electoral Commission of Zambia to behave.

Fumba, alias Pilato, says the Electoral Commission of Zambia has made very dangerous decisions which if left unchallenged the credibility of the 2021 elections may be lost even before Zambians go to the polls.

He warned, in a Facebook posting, the ECZ to guard itself against becoming the enemy institution of the people.

“If ECZ has decided to become a pata pata (flip-flop) for the ruling party it must state so,” Fumba said.

He noted that the ECZ had stated not once but a number of times that they are under-funded.

Fumba said the ECZ had to that effect refused to sponsor observers to see the printing of the 2021 presidential and general elections’ ballot papers in the United Arab Emirates.

“The reason they gave is that they have no funds for such an activity. The same Electoral Commission of Zambia is now telling us that it wants to have every one of us to re-register as voters within 30 days. If they don’t have the money to sponsor the observers to monitor the printing of ballot papers, why then discard the voters’ register that is existing now?” he asked. “The six million plus voters were registered over a period of years…What makes you think that you will register every qualified Zambian within 30 days? ECZ should guard itself against becoming the enemy institution of our people. They must decide which side of history they want to fall. We have a duty to defend the integrity and dignity of our institutions especially those that define our democracy. We will stand up to ECZ and we will resist every attempt to undermine the power of the vote.”

Fumba said the people at ECZ must be reminded that Zambia was not their poultry farm and “we are not their chickens, they cannot and will not act away from our wishes”.

“ECZ, behave,” urged Fumba.

This article originally appeared on The Mast