TIZ Spotlights Corruption, Violence At First Election Update

Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) this week commenced its 2021 elections project update with a focus on corruption in the political party adoption processes, abuse of state resources and handing out of cash to the public, as well as the electoral violence witnessed at the PF secretariat in Lusaka.

The project was launched on April 16 with the goal of promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in the electoral process. The organization is planning to release regular updates every week between now and the August 12 elections.

Speaking on the project the group’s executive director Maurice Nyambe explained that the updates will highlight different observations and concerns in the electoral process, but also seek to highlight any good practices it sees.

During the first update Nyambe noted that the use of state resources is problematic because it can be seen to give the party in power an unfair advantage

“The PF, being the party in government, has a greater obligation over this and we urge them to rise to the challenge. Now is not the time to suddenly arise from slumber and implement massive empowerment programmes since this could potentially coerce or influence voters and ultimately undermine the integrity of our electoral process,” Nyambe cautioned.

“We therefore call upon all public officials at all levels of our governance structure to resist the temptation of abusing their positions through distributing State resources with a view to coercing voters and therefore giving the party in government an unfair advantage over other political parties who do not have access to State resources,” he counselled.

Nyambe also stressed that distributing money to the public is against the electoral process Act No 35 of 2016. He revealed TI-Z’s concern at reports of senior government and PF officials handing our stacks of money and other gifts to citizens, under the guise of empowerment initiatives.

“As TI-Z, we wish to strongly emphasise that there is nothing normal about corruption and we strongly condemn any attempt to normalise the scourge in any way, shape or form,” Nyambe said.

“We urge the general public to be on high alert and report any candidate engaging in such illegalities to relevant authorities,” he continued.

During the event attention was also given to the violence that took place at the PF Secretariat last weekend.

“If political parties can exhibit this level of aggression within their own structures, one can only imagine how hostile they may be to other political parties as we go towards 12th August. TI-Z therefore makes an urgent and earnest appeal to leaders of political parties to come down strong on political violence and tame their cadres as we approach the campaign period,”Nyambe stated.