The Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) has described the just ended 2021 general elections as credible.
AVAP Executive Director, Richwell Mulwani says the manner in which the elections were conducted is in line with international best practices.
Mr. Mulwani stated that the elections were conducted in a very transparent manner which gives credibility to the process.
And Mr. Mulwani said the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) managed the elections well under difficult circumstances.
He however said ECZ should in future elections revisit the decision to divide one polling centre into several polling stations.
“We need to learn lessons, we need to separate some of the places, you cannot have a place that is highly congested. As a result it was difficult to follow COVID-19 protocols,” he said.
He further said more needs to be done to educate polling officials.
“We noticed that some of the electoral officials need adequate training. They need to understand what they need to do in the polling station. Others in terms of undertaking that inking when voting, they did not know what to do,” he said.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS, Mr. Mulwani said the polls were generally peaceful except for a few reported incidences of violence in some parts of the country on the polling day.
Mr. Mulwani also commended Zambians for the massive turnout to exercise their right to vote.
Zambia recently held its August 2021 general elections, which has seen the election of the United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema ushered into office as the 7th Republican President.
Indeed ECZ did a brilliant job in managing the elections. The absolute transparency did wonders. Two remarks: The arrogance of the ECZ management team while in the results center was rather troubling; they are servants to the Zambian population but any question was answered with ridicule. And secondly, one should revisit the physical process inside the polling stations, I really thought it was all very slow and this can be improved upon. Maybe more polling stations is the answer, but personally I think the process inside the stations can be much quicker. For the rest, nothing but admiration for ECZ, nobody has asked any questions on the results.
Yes the electoral Commission (ECZ) worked under very difficult conditions but the invisible hand failed to influence the outcome. There is need to change the law on appointment of ECZ management so that they are not appointed by a seating President.
Indeed, ECZ did a credible job. But the incoming President needs to work on restoring the “One Zambia One Nation Motto” in Southern, Western and Northwestern Provinces where voters from these 3 provinces overwhelmingly voted for HH, which was not the case in the other 7 provinces where voters seem to uphold the motto better. AVAP needs to do a lot more voter education there.
CREDIBLE PERHAPS NOT CORRECT,ALOT OF IMPEDIMENTS FOR PRESIDENT ELECT.CERTAINLY NEED TO INCREASE POLLING STATIONS.RESULTS WERE NOT PUBLISHED AT POLLING STATIONS ,SO HOW CAN YOU SAY TRANSPARENT.
LISTS BEARING VOTERS REGISTER NEED TO BE PLACED AT MULTIPLE POINTS TO AID VERIFICATION BY VOTERS
What about Ballot Papers missing? We have seen heaps of dumped Pre-marked Ballot Papers which were distributed to PF Cadres to rig the Elections. Had it not been that Voters ring fenced the Polling Stations to protect the vote the Election would have been rigged. Even then Election Results for Matero and Chawama are out of trend with results from Kanyama,Kabwata, Lusaka Central, Kafue etc. Could it be that these Pre-marked Ballots were stuffed in Matero and Chawama Ballot Boxes? ECZ owes the Voters an Explanation.
We know, and stop claiming you are the ones who brought people to vote.
There is need for the ECZ to increase the voting period to a minimum of 24 hours in order to achieve a voter turnout of at least 83%. There is need also to improvise voting infrastructure, split polling stations to a certain number attainable.