THE United States government has urged election observers to respect the authority of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
United States ambassador to Zambia Mark Storella said effective monitoring of elections demands that electoral laws are followed and that civil society organisations, as election observers, carry out their task professionally.
Mr Storella said in a statement released in Lusaka over the weekend that the US government would only work with civil society organisations which observe elections in a non-partisan manner.
He expressed gratitude for the gesture shown by Government to invite both local and international election observers to monitor this year’s tripartite elections.
Mr Storella said Zambia has an impressive history of conducting free and fair elections and to support the electoral process in the country, civil society organisations and all stakeholders should follow the laid down procedures.
“It is important for all stakeholders to respect the law and proper procedures to preserve peace in the electoral process which reflects the will of the Zambian people,” MrStorella said.
He said the ECZ has the authority to count ballots and election observers can only use the official results as posted by the commission to make independent tallies.
Mr Storella said observers should wait for the ECZ to make an official announcement of the results before releasing their own analyses of vote counts.
He said the US government will continue to support the democratic process in the country and that the American people would like to see Zambia cement its reputation for being a leader of democracy, peace, and stability in southern Africa.
And JERRY MUNTHALI reports that insinuations that the ruling party plans to conduct its PVT at a cost of K27 billion in this year’s tripartite elections are works of daydreamers, MMD national secretary Richard Kachingwe says.
Reacting to reports that the ruling party plans to spend K27 billion on its own PVT exercise in the general elections, Major Kachingwe said yesterday that the ruling party respects the rule of law and cannot conduct PVT to usurp the powers of the ECZ.
“It is baseless for anyone to suggest that we will conduct PVT. We are a party of laws, we respect the laws of Zambia and we respect the law that established the Electoral Commission of Zambia,” he said.
He said the MMD will not do anything to undermine the authority of the ECZ.
“We have never discussed it at any forum because we respect the ECZ and we have confidence in them. The so-called source of this information is a blatant liar because this is not in our circles,” Maj Kachingwe said.
The article was carried by The Post quoting sources suggesting that the ruling party is planning to carry out its own PVT and intends to spend over K27 billion on the exercise.
“Which sources are they talking about? I am the chief executive of the party and I have no idea whatsoever what they are taking about. We have a new national executive committee and elections fall under honourable Gabriel Namulambe who is chairman of elections. He has been busy with other tasks at national and party level,” Maj Kachingwe said.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Major Kachingwe,
These chronic losers are epileptic on delusions. They are smearing a land mark defeat yet again that is set to leave them a debt trough unless Gays associations open up more.
Major Kachingwe,
These chronic losers are epileptic on delusions. They can smell a land mark defeat yet again at the hands of MMD. That is set to leave them in a debt trough unless Gays and lesbians associations Roger Chongwe, Mmembe, William Harrington have linked them too open up blank checks.
The thought they will be making money from the PVT….
Well done USA
I am glad this came from a relatively credible source!! the Major we can trust, and thanks Storella for speaking the truth, not those danish that want gays in zambia!
why try and cause havok??/ PVT is not used in states or UK, you can tally quite alright, but ECZ must announce, the returning officer must make his say and then you counter check and agree or challenge,…those are the laws, how do you begin announcing your own thing like its a circus???
i hope that people can see the post and mmembe more clearly now. it is always sources said this and sources said that, when the source is actually mmembe himself and his factory of lies.
if you see a comment from pf cadres on this one it will be to say that storella has been paid by mmd.