Church to deploy 1, 500 monitors
THE Christian Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG), a consortium of Church mother bodies, will deploy 1, 500 election monitors in the August 12 polls.
CCMG chairperson, father Emmanuel Chikoya, said the monitors would be deployed countrywide to check on the conduct of the election this year.
"On election day, we will deploy 1, 500 monitors countrywide who will monitor the process but this does not mean that the Church is moving away from biblical mandate," he explained.
Fr Chikoya was speaking during a media briefing held at the Anglican Church in Livingstone yesterday.
The CCMG draws membership from the Churches Council in Zambia, Evangelical Church in Zambia, Zambia Conference for Catholic Bishops and the
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection
Fr Chikoya said CCMG would this year conduct its own Parallel Voter Turbulation (PVT) like it did in 2016.
He said that the interest of the consortium was not fault finding but just checking on the process and speaking for the voiceless.
Meanwhile, Fr Chikoya said the CCMG was concerned with the current type political parties’ mobilisation style on in the country ahead of the August 12, general elections.
He observed that the ruling PF and UPND were parading hefty young men as though they were preparing for boxing, which was very worrying.
Fr Chikoya said that it was high time that the two major political parties promoted politics of civility and not politics of pangas.
He said the current situation was dangerous and that CCMG would like to see issue-based campaign.
"On the issue of dialogue, we as CCMG would want to see issue-based campaigns. We have noticed that both the PF and UPND are mobilising cadres as though they are preparing for a physical boxing led by some commanders," he said.
He said that what is happening in the political space is dangerous for the nation.