ECZ COURTING CHAOS - OYV

Mr Nyirenda said the ECZ should never think they were the alpha and the omega who could decide who should participate in an election or not because it was but a neutral umpire and should therefore avoid disenfranchising citizens.

But Mr Nyirenda said in an interview yesterday that there is a growing perception that the current ECZ had become an appendage of the party in government and was largely politically partisan in their discharge of their mandate.

“The ECZ has no right whatsoever to block any candidate that meets all the qualification of an aspiring candidate, including being sponsored by a political party from participating or contesting in any election.”

“The mandate for the ECZ is to facilitate the holding of the elections and not to participate. There are growing concerns that the current ECZ is failing to be impartial and Zambians are fast getting agitated and frustrated that they are being disenfranchised because their preferred political party, the PF and its candidates are being denied the rights to participate in the electoral process,” Mr Nyirenda said. He said the ECZ should never be seen or suspected of aiding the ruling party to rig elections because there was a real danger that citizens would end up losing confidence in the country’s electoral body and engage in activities that could easily cause chaos.

Mr Nyirenda explained that it was not the mandate of the ECZ to interpret the law in managing the electoral process but that such a responsibility was with the courts of law.

He said what was happening was exactly what transpired during the Bowman Lusambo and Joseph Malanji saga in which the courts of law declared the two eligible to recontest their seats but were unconstitutionally blocked by the ECZ.

“The ECZ cannot continue to disenfranchise citizens in a democracy. The electorates have a choice as to who should lead them and it cannot be the ECZ to indirectly choose leaders for the voters by eliminating competitors to the ruling party.