European Union To Observe August 12 General Election

The European Union have kindly accepted an invite by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Zambia to observe the August 12 2021 Zambian General Election.

Ms. Maria Arena, Member of the European Parliament, has been appointed by Mr. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, as the Chief Observer for the mission.

The mission will be the Union’s fifth to Zambia, having observed elections in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016, as well as carrying out an Election Follow-up Mission in 2019.

“The European Union highly values its comprehensive partnership with Zambia and appreciates the invitation by the Zambian authorities to deploy an EU Election Observation Mission to the forthcoming elections,” High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell said.

Mr Borrell added that the purpose of the mission is to “support the conduct of peaceful, credible, inclusive and transparent elections in Zambia,” with the success of an electoral assessment vital to help promote democracy within the country.

11 election experts from the EU will travel to Zambia at the end of June before being joined by 32 Long-Term Observers in the second week of July. On election day itself an additional 30 locally recruited Short-Term Observers will help reinforce the mission.

Although the presence of election observation is a a step in the right direction towards a free and fair election, readers must be reminded that electoral mis-management has already occurred with the creation of a new voters roll which unsurprisingly sides favourably with the ruling Patriotic Front’s strongholds. Behind the scenes fiddling of results may also still occur, in spite of the presence of these high-powered Electoral Monitors.

Photo: DH Magazine