SECTION 7: ‘ The Commission shall conduct a continuous registration of voters’.
Interpretation: This means that voter registration is an ongoing process that should take place on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis and should never be stopped. The law requires the ECZ to have permanent voter registration centres just like the National Registration Office.
The Law only requires the ECZ to stop voter registration in any district during the period of a by election, or during the period of general elections. Otherwise voter registration is to be done on a daily basis without breaks.
Question: Has the ECZ conducted continuous voter registration since the electoral process Act of 2016?
Answer: The Answer is an emphatic ‘NO’. The ECZ is in breach of the Electoral Process Act of 2016, they have failed to conduct continuous voter registration since 2016, and as such the Chairperson of the ECZ, Commissioners of ECZ and Chief Electoral Officer must be compelled to resign from their positions for being in breach of the law.
PRISONER VOTING
SECTION 9: (1) The commission shall not register a person as a voter if that person
(D) is detained under the Criminal Procedure Code.
(F) is under a sentence of death imposed by a competent court, or a sentence of imprisonment imposed by a court or substituted by a competent authority for some othersentence imposed by that court;
Interpretation: The law is very clear, any person currently serving a prison sentence as a result of a court conviction is not eligible to register as a voter, and the commission is prohibited by law from registering prisoners as voters.
Question: Is the ECZ in breach of the law by registering prisoners as voters?
Answer: It’s an emphatic ‘YES’. The law expressly prohibits the registration of prisoners as voters. The ECZ is therefore in serious breach of the law by proposing to register prisoners as voters.
It is illegal and an offence to register prisoners as voters.
On these grounds the ECZ Chairman and Commissioners must resign in national interest.
VOTER REGISTRATION PROCESS
Section 13. (1) The Commission shall establish a Provisional Register of Voters as prescribed.
Question: Is there a provisional voter register?
Answer: Yes, there is, it was established in 2016 and used in the 2016 General Elections. Infact, the same register is in use today in all by elections that have taken place between 2016 when the voter register was compiled and 2020.
Section 14. (1) The Commission shall compile and maintain the Register of Voters as prescribed.
Interpretation:
The key words here and ‘compile’ and maintain’.
In 2016 the ECZ compiled a voter register. Compilation of the register is a once off event which took place in 2016.Therefore, the ECZ only needs to maintain the register that was compiled in 2016.
Question: How should the ECZ maintain the voter register?
Answer: Through continuous voter registration as prescribed in section 7 of the Electoral Process Act of 2016.
Question: Is the ECZ in breach of the law by failing to maintain the register that was compiled in 2016, and proposing to throw it away and create a new register?
Answer: The Answer is yes, the ECZ is in breach of the law, the law requires them to compile a register (which they did in 2016) and to maintain it through continuous voter registration (which they have not done since 2016).
On these grounds again the Chairperson, Chief Electoral Officer and Commissioners of the ECZ must be compelled to resign or be removed from their offices for breach of the electoral act, negligence, and gross incompetence.
SECTION 10 – DEREGISTRATION OF VOTERS
A registration officer shall de-register a voter if the registration officer is satisfied that the voter
(a) does not qualify to be registered as a voter;
(b) no longer meets the qualifications for registration as specified in section eight;
(c) has been fraudulently registered;
(d) obtained the registration through submission of falseinformation or making of a misleading statementInterpretation: What this means is that these are the only circumstances under which a voter can be deregistered.
Question: Is the ECZ in breach of the law by deregistering over 6 Million registered voters ?
Answer: The answer is an emphatic ‘YES’, the ECZ does not have authority under law to deregister any voter unless one of these 4 criteria has been met.
On these grounds again the Chairperson and Commissioners of the ECZ must be compelled to resign for proposing to illegally deregister over 6 million validly registered voters who have not met the above 4 criteria for voter deregistration.
REMOVAL OF DECEASED PERSONS FROM THE VOTER REGISTER
The argument put forward by the ECZ is that they want to create a new voter register because there are a lot of deceased (dead) persons on the register.
So what does the law say about this matter?
Section 16: Amendments to Voters Register 16.
(1) A registration officer shall—
(c) delete the name of a voter who is deceased.
The law is very clear, deceased voters must be deleted from the register.The Law does not allow for the creation of a new register for the reason of knocking off dead people.
The word ‘DELETE’ means to ‘REMOVE’ from an already existing document.You can only delete something from something else that already exists, and what exists is the 2016 Voters Roll, therefore the deceased persons must be deleted from the 2016 voters roll.
Question: Is the ECZ In breach of the Electoral Process Act 2016 by proposing to discard the register for the reason of knocking off deceased people?
Answer : The answer is an emphatic ‘YES’, the law requires the ECZ to ‘DELETE’ the names of deceased persons from the voter roll, it doesn’t require the ECZ to create a new voter roll, in fact there’s nowhere in the law where the ECZ is granted powers to discard the voters roll and create a new one, the law requires them to maintain the existing register on a continuous basis and to register new voters and delete deceased voters. The voters roll has an indefinite life abs no one has authority under the law to discard the voters register.
On this basis again, the Chairperson of the ECZ, Chief Electoral Officer and Commissioners must resign and be prosecuted for breaching the law.
CONCLUSION
Any election conducted by the ECZ through a new voter register is illegal, ultra vires, null and void and is non-binding on the people of Zambia. Any election where prisoners are allowed to vote is illegal, ultra vires, null and void and is non-binding on the people of Zambia.
Any election conducted by the ECZ where the 6.6 million validly registered voters are deleted from the voter register is illegal, ultra vires, null and void and is non-binding on the people of Zambia.
So Zambians should not even consider any process conducted by the ECZ outside of the provisions of the law, that is not an election, it is an illegal attempt to create a dictatorship in the country through an illegal sham electoral process done outside of the provisions of the law.
Zambians should not participate in any purported election done outside of the provisions of the law, it is illegal, null and void, ultra vires and non-binding on the people of Zambia.
All genuine political parties should not participate in any purported election done outside of the provisions of the law, it is illegal, null and void, ultra vires and non-binding on the people of Zambia.
Participating in such an illegal election would be validating it and rubber-stamping illegality and a bogus electoral process conducted outside of the provisions of the law.
If the ECZ proceeds to conduct a purported election conducted outside of the provisions of the law, Zambia will be without a President because any individual supposedly elected through that process shall not be recognized as President of the Republic of Zambia because they would have been elected through a process that is illegal, null and void, ultra vires and outside of the provisions of the law, which will create a constitutional crisis as the country will be without a legally elected Head of State when the tenure of President Edgar Lungu has expired.
COPYRIGHT NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS PARTY (NDC) MEDIA 01.10.2020
The ECZ isn’t different from the National Prosecutions Authority which largely relies on ZP to prosecute cases. The ECZ lacks capacity to fully conduct the electoral process alone, unless it seeks support from other institutions. It’ll therefore take time to fully comply with the Law
Very well articulated and factual. Essau Chuulu is an uncle to Lungu. A decent person would have stepped aside due to the obvious conflict of interest…but not this self absorbed pf cadre.
As for the registration of prisoners, even if the PF amends that part of the Act to allow prisoners to, it’s a dirt scheme by the PF to capture those 10,000 because a person that is in prison isn’t in a right frame of mind and that’s the reason they lose certain rights. The right to vote isn’t that important to prisoners
crispy clear….Now you will hear one Id1ot by the name of KZ what he will state here…..!!! very shallow individual!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crispy clear!!!!!!!! Kaya uyu ndani azakamba chani manje…Kz, a shallow individual indeed!!
Thanks NDC, this is clear and every well meaning zambian should be in support of this well researched article. Waiting for comments from one big mwankole of this platform. Remember we all zambian before we become PF, UPND and NDC, therefore we should make sure we do whats is right for our country, but not for our stomach.
Zambians easily forget, Zambians are good at forgetting and it seems Zambians do not know what they want.
Here is a small reminder – FEBRUARY 2020:
“…..He said the Commission decided to come up with a new voter register following recommendations made during the post 2016 general elections review.
Mr Nshindano pointed out that the 2016 voter registration was contentious as stakeholders and political parties raised a number of concerns.
He said among the concerns raised was that the 2016 voter register contained names of foreigners.
Meanwhile, he clarified that the old voter’s cards should not be discarded as they remain valid until next year.
He indicated that the old cards can be used in an event of a by-election stating that the new voter register will only be…
continued…..
He indicated that the old cards can be used in an event of a by-election stating that the new voter register will only be effective in 2021.
Zambians what do we want, old Voters Register which contains foreign names? or new Voters Register as demanded by political parties and other stake holders?
Before you crucify ECZ, who said prisoners should vote? Is It the courts or ECZ? Take that argument to courts If you think you have a case against ECZ. As the saying goes the first one to speak in court Is convincing until he is cross-examined. Quoting the articles is very simple, but when you are told to interpret the very articles you have quoted that is when we know you have copied and pasted.
@7,8Whiteson &9 Ilogical,you are arguments are only valid in chronology but are NOT supported by any law. Elections are governed by laws ,one of them the ECZ law. With everything you have outlined PF as party in govt needed to change the law(s) through parliament to facilitate what they are now doing,illegally. Election observers just observe electoral problems,Courts interpret but don’t change laws but parliament does! SO HERE NDC STANDS ON THE LAWS THUS ARE RIGHT!!
Whiteson
We do not dispute the need for a new voters roll call , but the time frame ECZ has squeezed this time frame has left many Zambians without voting rights…
ECZ have admitted having inadequate funds and manpower , yet you put a 1 month dead line to register ????
Monkey tricks by lungu….
Conduct of “continuous” voter registration is also subject to transparent and accountable mechanisms. In Administrative Law, in Constitutional Law, in Constitutional Law, the responsibility of demand management implies reasonable flexibility as determined by competent courts of recognized jurisdiction. If it is too expensive, then a more cost effective intervention is necessary. In brief, special voter registration exercise is also acceptable. Two, prisoners also deserve to enjoy basic civil and political rights. The decision to accord voting rights to prisoners was long overdue. Three, eliminating ghost voters is one of the responsibilities of ECZ. In addition, new computer software can also necessitate creating new data banks. Data importation or data export cannot resolve all…
I start to like NDC.
I deleted Sean Tembo’s PeP.
We are being S crewed by lawyers in this country. They are ruling us left right and centre and stealing ‘legally.’ Nearly every board of a state owned enterprise is headed by a lawyer. The executive, lawyer. The judiciary, lawyer (that is ok), the legislature, lawyer. The ECZ, lawyer. The ACC, lawyer. More lawyers are also in parliament.
Very well articulated by the NDC.
The law is clear regardless of what PF cadre judges like Mwila Chitabo and Concourt judges think.
Likewise, the $6.5billion debt was not approved by parliament. ECL and the PF would foot this debt personally
@7,8 Whiteson,9 Illogical &10 Dr.Kasonde;all what you have explained requires the law to support them. Elections are based on laws and the ECZ Act is one of those important laws. To say “elections monitors recommended new register….courts ruled to allow prisoners to vote…” is NOT enough because relevant pieces of legislation needed to be amended to accommodate those recommendations and court rulings. PF as a party in power, needed to take relevant pieces of legislation to parliament for amendment before going ahead to carry out specific actions that are comprising confidence in elections! IT IS ILLEGAL TO DO WHAT IS NOT BACKED BY LAW. NDC IS STANDING ON THE LAW HENCE ARE RIGHT AND SHOULD BE SUPPORTED
Who is a foreigner and how many of their kind are on the 2016 roll? If having foreigners on the existing roll is one main reason to have it discarded what guarantees are there that there won’t be any on the new one? With ongoing NRC registration a good reference to it may help answer the questions
Who is a foreigner and if having foreigners on the roll is the one main reason why it should be discarded what guarantees are there that there won’t be any on the new one? what lessons are there from ongoing NRC registration?
Now I understand why Jesus lambasted Lawyers of his time. Too many lies! You can’t have the written Law saying one thing and the court ruling otherwise.
It’s such behavior that has led to problems in what we call war-torn countries. In life, we reap what we sow! All these trouble makers will have their day of reckoning!
Ba UPND has a fake register in southern province.