The Electoral Commision of Zambia (ECZ), with the assiatnce of the United Nations (UN), will this year use Biometric technology to conduct voter registration. Biometric technology is used to measure and analyze human body characteristics, such as fingerprints, for for either identification or verification purposes.

The UN, through its Development Programme (UNDP), has already selected a company called Smartmatic to provide the new technologies for the improvement of the electoral register for ECZ.

For the first stage of the project, Smartmatic will supply ECZ with 1,000 mobile electronic biometric registry units, known as PARkits. This kit will include all hardware and software components, with their respective protective cases, training services, technical assistance and a one-year warranty.

Smartmatic, a leading provider of technological solutions for governments, was selected after the UN conducted a rigorous testing of numerous identity and registry technologies.

“We are very excited to be selected by the UNDP for this important project and to have the opportunity to provide the Republic of Zambia with our advanced technology to enhance their electoral register”, said Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic’s CEO. The PARkit units that will be used in Zambia are all equipped with Smartmatic’s registration application and with electrical backup components that ensure its autonomy for 8 straight hours.

The UNDP expects recruiting of operators to start on the second week of April and the electoral registration operations to begin in May 2010.The voter registration project in Zambia is part of the UNDP’s ongoing commitment to improve the performance of democratic governments. The UNDP invests 34% of its resources each year in projects in support of democratic governments and provides on-the-ground services in 166 countries.

Smartmatic specialises in fully-automated, electronic voting systems which they claim are completely secure, reliable and auditable. In January this year, their electronic voting system was successfully used in a parliamentary elections in ,Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the

Venezuelan coast. The big test for the company’s voting system will be in Phillipines, where that country’s Electoral Commission has deployed an automated electronic system by Smartmatic for use in this year’s May elections.

It is however not clear weather the ECZ will use Smartmatic’s automated electoral systems or just use their voter registration component. While automated voting system are claimed to deliver results timely and with confidence, many people are still sceptical of the successful deployment of such an operation in Zambia at the moment because of infrastructure challenges.

Timely release of results has been at the centre of frustration that many a Zambian voters and Political parties have had to endure in the last couple of elections. Any solution to address this problem will roundly be welcomed by all parties involved.

CHIEF Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha has said the statement by Patriotic Front (PF) secretary general Wynter Kabimba that President Rupiah Banda’s recent trip to China was a tourism stint showed arrogance and cheap politicking by the PF.

Lieutenant-General Shikapwasha, who is Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, described Mr Kabimba’s statement as cheap and part of the PF’s orchestrated anti-China campaign to undermine the positive accomplishments being made by President Banda in accelerating Zambia’s economic development.

He said President Banda was the first African head of State to be invited by President Hu Jintao to China this year, and that his delegation included businessmen who took the opportunity to establish contacts in China.

The minister said the PF secretary general needed education on the role China was playing in the global economic development.

He said Zambia had undertaken to diversify its economy from copper, and the delegation to China took advantage to sample the tourism potential in that country.

Gen Shikapwasha urged Mr Kabimba to focus on addressing the many problems the PF was facing in the face of its leader’s recent declaration as the sole candidate for the pact with the United Party for National Development.

He urged Mr Kabimba to do more research as a lawyer before issuing any statement as he was a learned person.

Meanwhile Agriculture and Co-operatives Minister Peter Daka has said PF leader Michael Sata was exhibiting politics of hatred and ignorance on issues that he does not understand.

Mr Daka said Mr Sata’s condemnation of President Banda’s official visit to China, was a clear indication that the opposition leader had wrong ideas on politics because there was no way he could attack the president when he did not know Zambia’s benefits from the China trip.

He said in an interview yesterday that President Banda went to China to solicit for support in many sectors of the economy.
Mr Daka said agriculture was one sector that would benefit from the projects on electricity that President Banda solicited in China.

He said Mr Sata’s attacks showed that he was now panicking because he had no future in Zambian politics.
The minister also said that Zesco held talks with China Export Bank for assistance to expand Kariba North Bank power station, which would raise the power generation capacity by another 360 megawatts.

The idea was such that if power generation was increased, farmers would have water throughout the year to use in irrigation farming that would help ensure food security.

He said many institutions benefited from the trip and cited a local entrepreneur who signed a US$3 billion partnership with a Chinese company to produce electricity from bio-mass.

Mr Daka said Mr Sata was practicing retrogressive politics by going to Luapula Province, flying and driving round Eastern Province only to talk about him (Mr Daka) and Education Minister Dora Siliya.

He said Mr Sata showed that he could afford to hire a plane but when he went to Eastern Province he wanted to show people that he was poor and went round radio stations condemning President Banda and the two ministers.

Mr Daka said President Banda’s Government was on course and, for the first time in 30 years, the country had achieved $1.8 billion international reserves and saved 1,700 jobs at Luanshya Copper Mines.

Times of Zambia

After years of disagreement, the Zambian government has finally awarded private mobile-phone operators licenses to operate international gateways in a bid to bring down the high cost of communications.

Two service providers have been given licenses to access the international gateway facility that was previously exclusive to the government-run Zambia Telecommunication Co. (Zamtel), which is now being sold in order to bring it back to life financially.

A gateway fee had been paid to Zamtel — in addition to fees for using Zamtel’s satellite system — by private service providers through the Zambian government. This resulted in unfair competition, with private service providers charging their customers exorbitantly in a bid to make profit and to sustain their operations.

Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) acting director General Richard Mwanza said in Lusaka last week that the move to award licenses to Zain and MTN would enable the two mobile service providers to lower their high international tariffs. Mwanza made the remarks at a meeting of CEOs at the Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The two service providers and various stakeholders, including the World Bank, had for years been expressing concern at the high cost of doing business in the telecom sector in Zambia, emanating from high license fees of about US$12 million that were required to access the international gateway.

But despite approving the licenses, the Zambian government will not say how much the new gateway licenses will cost until a new regulatory framework that will provide guidelines on the use of the gateway is put into place. Zambia’s international gateway fee was the highest in the Eastern and Southern African region and was cited as a barrier to entry in the telecom sector. International gateway fees are pegged at US$214,000 in Kenya and $50,000 in Uganda.

The granting of international gateway licenses to the service providers is, among other things, the culmination of comprehensive consultations that have been carried out by the Zambian government in order to address concerns that service providers were raising.

“The granting of international gateway licenses to the two service providers will result in the competition in international services, which was in the past a monopoly for Zamtel,” Mwanza said.

The international gateway for Zambia had remained closed since liberalization policies were introduced for other areas of the telecom sector 20 years ago. Private operators had wanted to buy their own international gateways but the Zambian government refused, citing security reasons.

“The biggest problem now is the high interconnectivity charges between networks of mobile operators. In other countries in the region, interconnectivity charges are lower,” Khan said.

Other Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries are pushing Zambia and other countries where the price of international calls is high to reduce costs by cutting or scrapping termination and roaming charges in a bid to increase traffic flow.

Speaking at a SADC telecommunication operators’ bilateral meeting last month, Botswana Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Mabua Mabua, said scrapping the charges will benefit not only operators but also consumers.

Mabua said a large component of transborder call costs is mainly in the form of roaming or termination charges, which have no bearing on the actual true costs of the calls.

[ The Industry Standard]

MINISTER of Home Affairs Lameck Mangani says Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata’s visits to rural areas and featuring on community radio stations are a desperate attempt to allegedly show his sponsors that he is still an active politician who can win next year’s presidential elections.

Mr Mangani said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the PF leader is allegedly panicking to please people who sponsored him in the 2006 and 2008 presidential elections because they now seem to be losing confidence in the opposition leader’s prospects of winning elections next year.

“Mr Sata’s visits to the Copperbelt, Luapula and now Eastern provinces are a desperate attempt to show his sponsors that he is still active in politics. His donors are worried about the degree issue and the way the pact is moving,” he said.

The minister said Mr Sata is allegedly panicking and that is why he is now making desperate attempts to cover up pressure from his sponsors because they no longer seem to have faith in his fruitless promises.

“Now that chances are becoming slim, he is now going round visiting provinces and featuring on local radio stations. These visits are purely a sign of panic and we are not worried about them,” he said.

Last week, Mr Sata travelled to the Copperbelt, Luapula, Northern and Eastern provinces. He featured on live programmes on Radio Ichengelo in Kitwe, Radio Mano in Kasama and Chikaya Radio in Lundazi.
Meanwhile, Mr Mangani said it is wrong for some sections of society to think that the issuance of national registration cards (NRCs) will end once the mobile exercise is completed.

The minister said what people should know is that even as the mobile issuance of NRCs has been going on, the continuous process has been taking place at district offices.

Mr Mangani said two phases of the mobile exercise have already been completed and that the third phase will commence next month.

The first phase of the mobile issuance of NRCs covered Eastern, North-Western and Western provinces while the second one was conducted in Central, Northern and Southern provinces. The third phase will cover Copperbelt, Luapula and Lusaka provinces.
Mr Mangani said so far, about 800,000 people have been issued with NRCs under the mobile issuance exercise.

The minister said once the mobile issuance of NRCs is completed, Government will have to review the entire exercise to see how effective it was.

He said registration officers will still have to go back to issue more NRCs should need arise, especially in vast regions like Northern Province where there were some challenges in executing the exercise.
Mr Mangani said people should distinguish between the issuance of NRCs under the mobile exercise and the one from district offices.

He said the exercise is meant for rural areas where many people cannot access district offices while the latter is meant for urban areas and is continuous.

[Zambia Daily mail]

MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba has called on the Copperbelt MMD provincial leadership to respect the decision of the national executive committee on Kafulafuta member of Parliament George Mpombo’s case.

Yesterday the MMD on the Copperbelt called on Kafulafuta Mr. Mpombo to hasten his resignation from the ruling party as it is clear that he is allegedly not in good standing with the party.

Dr Kalumba said NEC will ensure that all procedures are followed and that the ruling party should be strategic on certain issues.

He called on the provincial leadership not to be emotional but to act on strategic sense of political reasoning.

“I understand their sentiments but there should be strategic sense of political reasoning,” he said.

Provincial chairman Joseph Chilambwe said in an interview that Mr Mpombo had now become a faultfinding person within MMD.

“If MMD is a bad party why cling to it? All Mr Mpombo should do is to resign from the ruling party and prove his popularity from outside,” Mr Chilambwe said.

He said Mr Mpombo was in UNIP, he resigned to join the United Party for National Development, the party he ditched to join the MMD.

“What is stopping him from resigning from MMD because that has been his political style,” Mr Chilambwe said.

He advised Mr Mpombo to stop politicising the death of Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Misheck Bonshe.
Mr Chilambwe said it is bad to politicise death which is a natural occurrence.

But when reached for comment Mr Mpombo said he will not resign and will contest the MMD presidency at the convention.

He said he was still popular in Masaiti and urged Mr Chilambwe to stop interfering with matters in Kafulafuta and Masaiti constituencies.

Zambia congress of trade unions President Leonard Hikaumba has said there is nothing wrong for the church to monitor the 2011 elections.

Mr. Hikaumba sais the decision by the catholic church to try and monitor the elections should not be politicized.

He said the idea by the Catholic Church was to ensure that they is transparency in the 2011 elections.

Mr. Hikaumba has since advised the church to re-consider their decision to show that they they were not taking sides.

On friday, Center for Elections and Governance (CEG) Trustee Gershom Musonda says the church has abandoned its functions and has instead concentrated its efforts on politicking.

Mr. Musonda was commenting on a statement by the Catholic Church that it would participate in the monitoring of the tripartite elections next year.

The ZCTU president has however welcomed the decision by the church to participate in the electoral process in the country.

QFM

GOVERNMENT has instituted investigations into reports that Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata was allegedly imprisoned for breaking the law.

Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani told the Sunday Mail in an interview yesterday that if the allegations against Mr Sata turn out to be true, then he will not be eligible for future elections.

Mr Mangani said Government decided to investigate the matter after a former freedom fighter Jackson Ngoma claimed that he once shared prison cells with Mr Sata.

Mr Ngoma, 77, the last district governor for Mambwe, said he shared the same prison cells with Mr Sata at Bwana Mkubwa and Mukobeko prisons in the early 1960s.

The former freedom fighter said he and other youths were rounded up for the role they played in the Chachacha uprising during the independence struggle. At the time, Mr Sata was a policeman and was brought in the cells in Ndola for a case review and later transferred to the maximum security prison in Kabwe.

Mr Mangani said Government would like to establish whether Mr Sata was tried and convicted of any crime or was merely one of the political detainees during the freedom struggle.

Mr Mangani said as a former police officer Mr Sata should know very well that he is not eligible to contest elections if he was convicted of a crime.
The minister said the Zambian law does not allow a former convict to run for elections.

“If indeed Mr Sata served a prison sentence, it means he does not qualify to stand for elections, then all these years that he has been standing, he has been doing it illegally,” Mr Mangani said.

He said, however, that there could be no better witness to the alleged incarceration than the people who shared a prison cell with Mr Sata.
He said although the incident happened before independence, government will get to the bottom of the matter to establish the truth.

Mr Sata could not be reached for a comment, but PF general secretary Wynter Kabimba accused Mr Mangani of not understanding constitutional provisions.

“Who says that if a person was convicted 20, 50 or 100 years ago he cannot stand for election?” Mr Kabimba asked.
He could not state whether Mr Sata was convicted, but said the constitution only bars presidential aspirants who were convicted five years preceding an election.

“There is nowhere in the Constitution where it says that anyone who has been convicted can never stand for elections. The Constitution says that the person who has been convicted five years leading to an election cannot stand for presidential elections,” Mr Kabimba said.

Meanwhile, KANGWA MULENGA reports that MMD youths on the Copperbelt and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) have challenged Mr Sata to withdraw from the Presidential race following revelations that he has two children outside marriage and allegations that he was once incarcerated for criminal offences.

Party provincial youth chairman Evans Chibanda said in an interview in Ndola yesterday that it is worrying that a person aspiring to become a Republican President could have such a record.

“We challenge Mr Sata to withdraw from the Presidential race until he clears himself from all the things that have surfaced against him,” Mr Chibanda said.

He has since cautioned Zambians to be careful with politicians aspiring to lead the country.
National Moral Advocates for a Better Zambia chairperson Alex Mubanga said there is need to establish the nature of the case that led to Mr Sata allegedly being imprisoned.

He said Mr Sata should inform the nation on the alleged criminal offence.

[Zambia Daily Mail]