NOMINATION FEES NOT REFUNDABLE - ECZ
unsuccessful presidential candidates demand their money
NOMINATION fees are non-refundable and not transferable, Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Public Relations
Manager Patricia Luhanga has said.
Ms Luhanga said the nomination fees that candidates aspiring for the Presidency were paying were not refundable.
This follows demands by All People's Congress Party (APC) leader Nason Msoni that ECZ immediately refunds him the K95, 000 he paid as nomination fees following his failure to file his nomination.
20 Presidential candidates had paid nomination fees while 16 had successfully filed-in their Nominations.
And Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) president Sean Tembo has said ECZ should immediately refund the four presidential candidates whose nominations were not successful their K95, 000 which each paid, without any delay.
Mr Tembo said ECZ structured its nomination process upside down by first collecting a payment before verifying that a candidate has satisfied the other requirements.
“The standard operating procedure for any decent organisation is to first confirm that a customer has satisfied all the other requirements before collecting a payment from such a customer,” Mr Tembo said.
He said any refusal or reluctance by the ECZ to refund the four unsuccessful presidential candidates will amount to extortion.
Mr Tembo said there was no basis whatsoever, whether legal, moral or otherwise, why the ECZ should keep money paid by unsuccessful presidential candidates.
“We wish to remind the commissioners that make up ECZ that Zambians in particular and the world at large have very high expectations of their moral standing and integrity. Any refusal to refund these unsuccessful presidential candidates will seriously undermine the standing of the Commission in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public,” he said.
Mr Tembo said it would be extremely regrettable if ECZ is seen to be running a “Ponzi scheme” in the manner that they managed the presidential nomination process.