CSOs Call For Accreditation Extension

Civil society groups are urging the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to extend the timeframe for the accreditation of monitors. 

Accreditation is scheduled to conclude today, after several changes to the deadline. However, civil society and opposition figures have expressed concern that the time allocated to the process has been insufficient and the shifting goalposts have resulted in confusion. 

The Tonse Youth Network, which represents Operation Young Vote (OYV), Action Governance Forum (AGF), Continental Leadership Research Institute (CLRI), Common Causes Zambia (CCZ), Sport-Aid Development Trust and Youth in Action for Disability Inclusion Zambia (YADIZ), has called for a five-day extension. 

Election monitors perform an important role in elections, providing third party scrutiny to the process. Their presence is essential in ensuring trust and public confidence in the official results declared by the ECZ.  

Given the closeness of the 2015 and 2016 polls the accreditation of monitors from across the country is considered critical to ensuring the 2021 elections can be seen as free and fair. 

According to the Tonse Youth Network the period allocated by the EC has been insufficient because the process is centralized, meaning access to accreditation centres is challenging for some citizens. 

“The network proposes that the ECZ should decentralise the process to constituencies so that the process is faster and also ensure that COVID-19 rules are enforced,” the Network’s chair Mundia Paul Hakoola has stated. 

“We are of the view that the process of monitoring and observing protects the rights of all participating stakeholders, promotes transparency on the voting and counting process and provides legitimacy for results to be acceptable by participating stakeholders and citizens,” he continued. 

Hakoola also called on the ECZ to deploy additional human resources to support accreditation.