General Elections A Critical Milestone To Consolidate Zambian Democracy – UNDP
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative Lionel Laurens has expressed his hope that the upcoming August general elections will be a chance for the country to consolidate democratic governance.
During the launch of civil society grants to promote voter education and stakeholder engagement in the 2021 electoral process, Mr Laurens stated that active participation in the upcoming elections will help to reinforce the democratic process in the country.
“The 2021 General Election is expected to be a critical milestone to consolidate the country’s democratic governance and mainstream citizen’s role in public decision making through active participation in electing their leaders to various public offices,” he said.
The grants have been provided in a bid to act on previous election reports, which called for increased voter education as well as increased voter participation by women, youth, people with disabilities and rural voters.
The activity forms part of a three-year Democracy Strengthening in Zambia project in which the United Nations Development Programme has targeted the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), the Zambia Police Service, the Judiciary, Parliament, media, political parties and civil society.
The main objectives of the project have been to support electoral transparency, inclusion, accountability and peace to strengthen the institutional capacity of key democratic institutions to contribute to credible and democratic elections.
So far, 18 civil society organisations have received financial support within the project.
“The 18 CSOs will be expected to undertake specific voter education-related activities such as multi-media-based activities, road and market shows, sports activities, community-based dialogue and training sessions, engagement with political parties and traditional authorities and also the dissemination of information, education and communication materials,” Mr Laurens said.
Financial contributors towards the project include the European Union, France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Although international donations have been provided in an attempt to run a democratic election in August this year, recent confirmation of the voters’ roll has raised questions over the credibility of the upcoming elections.
Two million adults were missed off the voters’ roll, which saw the number of voters in UPND strongholds decline, whilst the number of voters in Patriotic Front (PF) strongholds generally increased.
Photo: Lionel Laurens’ Twitter