Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) has commended the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) for conducting an independent audit that has revealed irregularities in the provisional voter’s register.FODEP has therefore called upon all electoral stakeholders to take keen interest and inspect the provisional voter’s register to verify anomalies that have been unearthed by independent auditors from Kenya.FODEP Acting Executive director,Chimfwembe Mweenge said the figures outlining irregularities are huge numbers that cannot be ignored because they can affect the outcome of the election and thus, must attract more interest from stakeholders to verify the voter’s register and make it credible.
Below is the full press release
Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) commends the electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) for conducting an independent audit that has revealed irregularities in the provisional voter’s register.
FODEP has observed that the audit was an important undertaking that has come at the right time in the electoral process when there are allegations of irregularities in the voter’s register.
We call upon all electoral stakeholders to take keen interest and inspect the provisional voter’s register to verify anomalies that have been unearthed by independent auditors from Kenya.
FODEP also calls for the quick and thorough finalization of the voter’s register, which must be released for external scrutiny to avoid having insufficient time for resolving issues that may arise from electoral stakeholders.
The revelation by auditors warrants immediate and urgent examination by the ECZ itself and all the electoral stakeholders in order to resolve any conflicts that may arise. The earlier the final voters register is finalized and released for external examination the better, in order to avoid leaving inadequate time for resolving concerns from stakeholders.
The 2016 voter’s register audit findings have shown that 132,837 voters on the voter’s register are sharing National Registration Card (NRC) numbers while 2,555 people shared NRC numbers, names and dates of birth.
The audit has revealed that 492 people shared nearly full registration details with some variations on gender and district code on NRC number. It has also established that 1,697,762 people representing 32 percent of the registered voters were added to the register as new voters while 142,383 were ineligible to vote and have been removed from the voter’s register.
The figures outlining irregularities herein are huge numbers that cannot be ignored because they can affect the outcome of the election and thus, must attract more interest from stakeholders to verify the voter’s register and make it credible.
We call upon the ECZ to act on the irregularities with expediency and accuracy realising that we only have up to 31st July, 2016 when the final voter’s roll must be completed.
Issued By:
Chimfwembe Mweenge
Acting Executive Director-FODEP
I fail to see what value FODEP is adding to the electoral processes thru this statement? There are various issues raised in the Audit Report and I thought FODEP could constructively comment on the issues raised. The purpose of FODEP Statement is not clear.
@1 The acting FODEP president is just lobbying for stakeholders to be interested in the findings hence calling them convene a meeting with ECZ discus the issuess BEMBA’S can never be clear with anything let alone transparent, they only do Donchi kubeba everytime even a fellow bemba crook @MWILA cannot even understand the motive by his fellow corook Mweeenge. Its a SHAME to our country to have these people
Chipimo talks rubbish:
The ruling Patriotic Front is reaching out to the National Restoration Party leader Elias Chipimo to join their ranks.
Chipimo, who withdrew from the 2016 presidential elections, is weighing his options ahead of the polls and the ruling Patriotic Front have taken the initiative to lure him to their ranks.
Top PF officials have been engaging the NAREP leader who has been dilly dallying although the key stumbling block has been the timing of the call. Chipimo has asked for more time from the PF top brass before hopping into the PF boat. NAREP has failed to make any real impact on the political scene since its formation despite the youthful flavour it brought to the political scene.
142,383 are ineligible to vote and have to be removed.The question is how come they were registed and by who?
These are serious answers we need from ECZ?
Can we have the names of those ineligible to vote so that after clean up we will be sure that the names were removed.