ECZ, Ministry of Labour must prevent exploitation of polling agents

AS the anticipated elections draw closer, political parties will seek to engage the services of mostly youthful citizens as polling agents. The principal duty of the polling agents is to ensure the interests of the given candidates are safeguarded and also ensure that the rules of fair play are adhered to.

On one hand, the political parties, mostly the opposition, will exploit the highly expectant youths for political purposes while after the elections date they continuously endure persistent demands for their remuneration usually in futility.

There are examples where some opposition political parties have been accused of neglecting to take care of polling agents both during the 2016 General elections and in the by-elections which were held.

It is for this reason that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), Ministry of Labour should take it upon themselves and formulate the rules and avoid the ugly history from repeating itself after the elections.

The proposal is that the ECZ must ensure that only political parties and candidates who have demonstrated the necessary ability to meet the financial obligations be allowed to send their polling agents at the respective poling centres.

While the contractual rights, duties and obligations on the appointment and terms of the polling agents are confined to consenting parties, there is need for the ECZ to safeguard public interest.

We are saying with full appreciation of the fact that the conditions of service for poling agents are mutual and exclusively between the political parties and the agents. However, we have seen in the past the ECZ invoking its regulatory framework and prescribe the internal relationships between political parties and their members’ interests.

The political parties or their respective candidates who will not show the ability to commit themselves toward the emoluments of their agents they wish to engage will expose themselves as exploiters rather than the champion of the workers as they claim.

In as much as they wish their interests to be secured, it should not be done at the expense of gross violation of labour laws under the guise of politics.

The expectations are even high to political parties that are campaigning on the pretext that they will improve the conditions of service for workers. We challenge them to walk the talk by taking good care of the polling agents.

ECZ and Ministry of Labour should use their vested collective powers and regulate the terms and disqualify engaging poling agents by political parties that are likely to render them destitute after being part of the front liners in the democratic process.