Zambia’s Electoral Vetting Process of Candidates during Elections questioned

 

Governance, Elections, Advocacy, Research Services Initiative is hopeful that the reports, if true, that the opposition in Mangango Constituency of Kaoma District in Western Province intends to petition the nomination of the ruling party candidate, Godwin Putu, who was said to have been duly nominated by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), over his perceived non possession of the Grade12 Certificate as required by the Constitution for one to duly participate in an election, will not only expose the weakness in Zambia’s electoral vetting system but also clean up the possible confusions in the nomination processes in future.

GEARS Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi said the fact that Mr. Putu was declared duly nominated by the ECZ after presentation of his papers to the Returning Officer and later his nomination triggered questions on his eligibility to contest the election due to his alleged lack of a Grade 12 certificate and now attracting a possible nomination petition in the Courts of law should tickle electoral stakeholders to push for serious review of the country’s nomination vetting process in the electoral process, which for a long time, has undermined electoral Justice in the country.

Here is a full statement

PRESS STATEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

21ST OCTOBER, 2018

GEARS Initiative Questions Zambia’s Electoral Vetting Process of Candidates during Elections.

The latent legal confusion in the nomination process with regards the nomination petitions and the timeframe on their conclusion is not only a huge cost to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the national treasury but the candidates, political parties, electorates and election monitoring oriented civil society organisations too.

Governance, Elections, Advocacy, Research Services (GEARS) Initiative is hopeful that the reports, if true, that the opposition in Mangango Constituency of Kaoma District in Western Province intends to petition the nomination of the ruling party candidate, Mr. Godwin Putu, who was said to have been duly nominated by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), over his perceived non possession of the Grade12 Certificate as required by the Constitution for one to duly participate in an election, will not only expose the weakness in our electoral vetting system but also clean up the possible confusions in our nomination processes in future.

The fact that Mr. Putu was declared duly nominated by the ECZ after presentation of his papers to the Returning Officer and later his nomination triggered questions on his eligibility to contest the election due to his alleged lack of a Grade 12 certificate and now attracting a possible nomination petition in the Courts of law should tickle electoral stakeholders to push for serious review of the country’s nomination vetting process in the electoral process, which for a long time, has undermined electoral Justice in the country.

Although article 52 (4) of the Constitution provides that, “a person may challenge, before a court or tribunal, as prescribed, the nomination of a candidate within seven days of the close of nomination and the court shall hear the case within twenty-one days of its lodgement, this set out period to hear, and probably determine the nomination petition lodged within seven (7) days after declaration of validly nominated candidates, coincides with the closure of the campaign period, the ECZ usually declare to the candidates and political parties to canvass electoral support and also to holding of the election itself.

Further, the prescription by the Constitution that “where a candidate becomes disqualified after the close of nominations and before the election date, the Electoral Commission shall cancel the election and require the filing of fresh nominations by eligible candidates and elections shall be held within thirty (30)days of the filing of the fresh nominations”, exposes great weakness in our nomination law and promotes resource wastage not only by the ECZ but to political parties, candidates and electorates also and must be reviewed urgently.

It is common knowledge that after nominations are done, all candidates and political parties duly declared so by the ECZ are given 30 days to carry out their official campaigns which is the same period prescribed by the Constitution in Article 52(5) to conclude the nomination petition at “least thirty days” before an election.

Where do those 30 days for nomination petition to be heard and determined come from when the campaign period is also 30days after nomination?

So when does the ECZ stop the declared campaign activities to accommodate the nomination petition to be heard and concluded?

Wouldn’t it be a contempt of Court for the petitioned to continue her/his campaign activities when his/her eligibility to contest that election is being contested in a competent Court of law?

Suppose the petitioned loses the petition after a final determination by the Court in provide for 30 days, which is also the end of the official Campaign period, will ECZ compensate the other candidates whose nominations were not challenged?

Imagine a nomination petition appeal against the earlier judgment to the Constitutional Court, what happens to the 90 days required by law to fill in an elective vacancy?

Isn’t this not going to delay the holding of the election beyond constitutional stipulated 90 days to fill a casual elective vacancy which may result to a constitutional crisis?

In ensuing the provisions of the law cited above, when ECZ cancels the earlier nominations and reschedule new nominations dates, would other candidates who paid nomination fees, declared duly nominated and campaigned for 30 days be compensated for having wasted their resources?

In the new nomination exercise, would those who were duly elected not pay the nomination fees since this will be a new nomination exercise altogether?

In this regard, GEARS Initiative, appeals to ECZ to help explain to the candidates, political parties,electorates, CSOs and other electoral stakeholders to understand this nomination petition process jargon and its consequences on the realization of an efficient electoral process in Zambia.

It is our founded fears that in an event that opposition succeeds with their challenge against Mr. Putu, the ECZ would have to cancel the Mangango bye-election and call for new dates for filing in of fresh nominations by eligible candidates.

This can only be premised on the belief that Mr. Putu would not appeal to the higher court should the challenge of his nomination is commence in a lower court, which may mean more expenses and demoralization of the voters leading to apathy.

It is GEARS Initiative’s considered view that to avoid this plethora of possibilities of confusion in the electoral process in future, all nomination petitions be heard and concluded before the official campaign activities are declared.

We also propose that the vetting process of all candidates should be given a 14 day period to allow the ECZ to thoroughly investigate and authenticate all nomination papers with all the relevant security and other authorities in the electoral process filed by all candidates before declaring the candidates duly nominated.

It will be an electoral injustice, and lack of sensitive to electoral fraud, which is usually common in the electoral process, to expect the ECZ to investigate, validate and ascertain the authenticity of the nomination papers from all candidates with varying backgrounds and declare them validly nominated within hours without proper consultation with security and other relevant authorities.

McDonald Chipenzi

ELECTORAL EXPERT/Executive Director GEARS INITIATIVE ZAMBIA.