UPND’s inconsistency on nomination and adoption fees
FOLLOWING the communication from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) on the proposed revised fees for candidates in the upcoming coming elections, the UPND is one stakeholder that openly disapproved the proposed fees.
It vehemently objected and demanded for the user friendly fee scale for all irrespective of the financial muscle.
On June 17, 2020,
UPND president Hakainde Hichilema took it to social media and protested the new nomination fees. He was quoted as having said, “New nomination fees totally unacceptable and an affront to the principle of Constitutional Democracy.”
He went on to say and we quote, “Politics should not be the preserve of the rich but every Zambian citizen who had a vision and the capacity to contribute to the wellbeing of Zambia must be allowed to enter the arena.”
The UPND even went to great lengths as far as petitioning the ECZ to express their discontent on the proposed “high” nomination fees.
Sadly, Mr Hichilema and his political party have been caught in the web of the same decision they condemned and their deeds have been established to the contrary of what they preached.
In the week coinciding with the celebration of the youth day, the nation is greeted with the disturbing news of very high nomination fees for the people wishing to be adopted as candidates under the UPND.
This is a deliberate ploy to technically knock out the people wishing to offer themselves for election from the race. On the youth perspective, this is condemned in the strongest terms as it has the ability to undermine the credibility of the electoral process.
Imposing hefty fees for the candidates has the ability to commercialise politics and this is an exclusion of aspirants who may not have a deeper pocket. The deeper pocket theory in Zambian politics should not be the basis of deciding who should be the flag bearer.
If their request for the ECZ to reduce the nomination fees was made in good faith, we expected that to be their internal criteria. It is clear, they did not mean what they said when they condemned the ECZ for increasing fees payable by candidates.
They were merely politicking and we urge them to take national matters seriously. The inconsistence on national matters shows their instability on serious national matters.
Every patriot has a responsibility to hold the UPND accountable and ensure they refrain from commercialising politics especially service to the nation. We are made to assume that there is a deliberate ploy to explosively exclude the marginalised people such as the youth and women on account of not affording the high nomination fees which is unacceptable.
WASHINGTON - Merrick Garland, sworn in as U.S. attorney general on Thursday, pledged that the Justice Department would adhere to “norms” to earn the trust of the American people, alluding to Democratic complaints of its politicisation under Republican former President Donald Trump.– REUTERS.