Zambian Bishops Call For Free, Fair And Peaceful Elections

As election day looms closer, Christian Church leaders issued a statement over the weekend urging Zambians to shun violence and embrace tolerance. 

The statement covered a variety of topics, including advice on avoiding donations from politicians, especially those from the ruling party who have been known to utilise tactical donations to try and increase the number of votes they will receive in the upcoming election. 

The Church themselves have also been offered donations from the PF already, however have been able to see the ulterior motives behind these gifts as they come with huge media coverage. The coverage is aimed at creating a positive profile of the PF to increase votes. 

Church leaders have also voiced their concern on the Voter’s Register, with the 2016 register being abandoned and the new register bringing with it worries around disenfranchising millions of voters in opposition strongholds. 

“We wish to inform the nation that we are currently studying the provisional register and analysing the data and will share our findings in due course. We are doing this because the Voter’s Roll is a very important document that determines the credibility of any election,” said the Bishops. 

If it is a credible election which they Bishops are hoping for, they are likely to be disappointed if this Voters Roll has anything to do with it. 

The political analyst and academic, Sishuwa Sishuwa, adds to the words of the church in showing concern over a lack of international influence on easing issues associated with the election. 

He says “incriminating silence of international, mainly Western, institutions and actors who once spoke out against human rights violations and murderous attacks on democracy and exercised some kind of leverage on the actions of the political elites in power. A key reason for this quietness is the decline in funding to Zambia from major world powers,”. 

All aforementioned issues and concerns voiced by the Church are a consequence of actions taken by the PF to increase their political power over the country.