CAMPAIGN WITH CIVILITY!

AS the campaigns start today, political parties must embrace civility to the core as they sell ideas to the citizens, who expect nothing but peace, development and a better livelihood.

Politicians ought to critically analyse and reflecton their messages before they release them for public consumption, lest they alarm the nation through half-truths and blatant lies.

There is absolutely no need to cause alarm and anarchy in this country over an election, which is just part of the political process.

Sadly, some people want to change the formation to the extent of making politics a vehicle through which to nourish their business interests.

Some people’s propensity to get into power is too high that they are ready to move to great lengths.

It is time for them to plan genuinely and fairly, firstly, through proper analysis of the statistics which the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) released on Monday.

Planning without looking at these critical statistics will be planning to fail.

Thus political leaders ought to look at the overall figure of certified 2021 registered voters, which stands at 7, 023, 499 and the fact that the age group between 24 and 34 years accounts for the highest proportion of the registered voters at 29.6 percent.

Politicians must get to the drawing board and quickly analyse the fact that out of the total number of certified registered voters, 3, 751, 040 are female representing 53.4 percent while 3, 272, 459 are male representing 46.6 percent.

Further, they must also learn the impact of having the age group of between 34 and 50 years at 28.9 percent and the age group 50 years and above being the lowest proportion of registered voters at 17.1 percent.

It is also true that 24 years and below age group accounts for 24.4 percent and political parties should scramble for these newcomers through convincing and sober messages.

Lusaka 1, 243, 619, followed by Copperbelt at 1, 025, 897, Eastern Province has 896, 339 voters in the third place while Southern is in the fourth position with 782, 067 certified registered voters.

Central has 666, 600, Northern 606, 346, Luapula 567, 003, Western stands at 447, 293 with Muchinga having registered 401, 658 voters while 386, 677 registered in the North-Western Province.

Therefore, analytical politicians must strategise before going out in the field to campaign using these figures.

A breakdown of the figures per province should guide politicians where to concentrate most as it will be myopic for anyone to ignore the stronghold factor.

It is also prudent that all political stakeholders abide by the electoral rules and also stick to the newly introduced standards operating procedures to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

The ECZ should be spared from unfair attacks as it is doing its best to deliver a credible and fair election.

Punching holes in whatever the ECZ introduces will not help matters, but will merely sow seeds of discord.