Good morning fellow citizens. We are delighted to bring you the fourth of our weekly reflections
from our 2021 Elections Project. Today’s update has a special significance because it falls on
the occasion of Africa Freedom Day, a very important day for the African continent when we
remember the sacrifices made by our founding fathers to bring political emancipation to the
continent. We will therefore use this update to also reflect on what Africa Freedom Day means,
especially in the context of our electoral process in general and the forthcoming elections in
particular.
Our update today will focus on the just concluded Presidential, Parliamentary and Local
Government nominations, as well as the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ)’s advice
concerning the holding of public rallies.
- Presidential Nominations
The nomination of candidates is provided for under Article 51 of the Constitution of Zambia as
amended in 2016. It is an important component of the electoral process, and one that
consequently attracts interest from many stakeholders, including the electorate. It therefore
goes without saying that in the context of TI-Z’s Elections Project, the filing in of nominations at
Presidential level was a process about which we took very keen interest.
In this regard, TI-Z monitored the filing in of nominations of the 16 presidential candidates that
took place at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka. Our interest in this
exercise was first to note and highlight anomalies that would arise in relation to electoral
malpractices of any sort. Beyond this, we were also looking to note and highlight any good
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practices that we would observe in order to give encouragement to any stakeholders that may
be doing the right thing to enhance the integrity of this year’s elections.
It is our conclusion that the nomination process was generally well-organized and handled, and
for that, the ECZ deserve to be commended. However, TI-Z noted that the Patriotic Front (PF)
candidate, President Edgar Lungu, arrived at the nomination centre almost an hour after his
scheduled time and this inevitably affected the entire programme, given that he was the very
first candidate to file in. Being the candidate of the current party in government, one would have
expected the Head of State to lead by example in adhering to the timeframe that had been set
by the ECZ, and while this was hardly a life or death issue, it could easily have been interpreted
to mean he shows little regard to the parameters set by institutions of governance. In that
regard, it did not portray the President in very good light.
On the other hand, the candidate of the United Party for National Development (UPND), Mr.
Hakainde Hichilema, came on time but was not ushered into the main hall for about an hour.
The delay was due to supposed verification of his documents which were said not to have been
in order. In our view, the ECZ failed to provide sufficient information to stakeholders during that
one-hour delay, a situation which fuelled uncertainty and speculation, especially on social
media. Going forward, we hope that the ECZ will draw lessons from this and endeavor to
provide timely and regular information about key aspects of the electoral process in order to be
transparent throughout the process. The rest of the 14 candidates who successfully filed in their
nominations did so with no incidences as reported by TI-Z’s monitors.
We further wish to commend the Zambia Police Service for exhibiting professionalism during the
nomination process. After Mr. Hichilema filed his nomination, a large crowd of UPND supporters
gathered outside Mulungushi International Conference Centre to show solidarity, and the Police
reinforced themselves and handled the potentially explosive gathering with professionalism. - Nominations of Parliamentary and Local Government candidates
Through its network of election monitors in different parts of the country, TI-Z also monitored the
filing in of nominations of some Parliamentary and Local Government candidates, with the vast
majority of candidates successfully filing in their nominations without incidence. Out of the 551
candidates monitored across the country at this level, less than four percent failed to file in their
nominations due to invalid, unverified or missing Grade 12 certificates. TI-Z also noted a few
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incidences of electoral violence in some parts of the country on account of the poorly handled
intra-party adoption processes. In Chilanga for example, our monitor alerted us to the clash of
two PF rival groups which resulted in the untimely death of Mr. Job Lusanso, a PF supporter
aged 66. Although we take note of the punitive action taken by the PF Secretary General, Mr.
Davies Mwila in suspending six officials from the party, TI-Z calls on the Zambia Police to fully
investigate the matter in order to bring the perpetrators of the violence to book. We should not
tolerate electoral violence in any way, shape or form, and the Police taking a firm stance against
such will send a very strong message to political parties and their cadres that violence will be
severely dealt with, regardless of the political affiliation of the perpetrators. - COVID-19 and campaigning without public rallies
On 22nd February 2021, the ECZ and Ministry of Health held a meeting to consider how
elections would be conducted amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in the formation of
a multi sectoral Technical Committee that developed modalities and guidelines for conducting
elections amidst the pandemic. According to the ECZ’s Standard Operating Procedures
Against COVID-19, political parties are discouraged from holding rallies, and instead urged to
utilise alternative medium of communication and information dissemination such as ICT
platforms, public addresses, radio, TV and other media. We have noted as TI-Z that the ECZ
has not banned the holding of rallies but rather only “discouraged” political parties from holding
of rallies as a COVID-19 mitigation measure. We have further noted that the PF have
responded to this development by banning public rallies for their candidates taking part in the
forthcoming elections. We however note that despite this highly publicized ban, Mr. Joseph
Malanji, a member of the PF Central Committee, held a rally in Chibombo District this past
weekend to receive what was said to be UPND defectors. It therefore appears to us that the
purported ban is a cosmetic one designed to advance the false narrative that the PF are
heeding to the advice given by the ECZ.
While the PF has been commended in some circles for announcing the ban, we would like to
urge the authorities not to use this as a justification for preventing opposition political parties
who may decide to go ahead with the holding of rallies from doing so. It is our belief that any
party that will decide to hold rallies in spite of the ECZ’s advice will be alive to the potential risks
involved and will therefore take the necessary precautions as guided by the Ministry of Health to
ensure that they reduce the risk of transmission amongst their supporters.
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It is also worth remembering that the PF conducted nationwide “mobilization meetings” at the
time when COVID-19 cases were high, while the opposition was not allowed the same liberty
through the selective application of the Public Order Act. TI-Z therefore considers the
sentiments by some PF officials aimed at limiting the opposition from gathering on account of
ECZ’s purported ban on rallies as not only misguided but also mischievous. - Commemoration of Africa Freedom Day
As stated earlier, today marks the commemoration of Africa Freedom Day, whose theme this
year is “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for building the Africa we want.” TI-Z is of the
view that part of the key components of our heritage and culture for building the Africa we want
lies in our ability to demonstrate how much we have grown in our political discourse and
practice as a continent. Unfortunately, the story of Africa’s political culture and heritage has
become less about the selfless service that our founding fathers rendered during the struggle for
independence and in the early years of self-rule across Africa. Rather, the story of Africa’s
political culture and heritage is increasingly about governance and economic failures at different
levels, coupled by a corruption problem that is taking its toll on many African countries, including
Zambia. TI-Z therefore calls upon Africa’s leaders to reflect on where they have steered the
continent over the last several years and to make amends for the wide ranging service delivery
failures that have become a permanent feature in many African countries. Bringing it closer to
home, we urge the Zambian government to be less rhetorical in responding to the governance
challenges that are ravaging the country, such as corruption and an ever decreasing civic
space. TI-Z regrets that over the last five years in particular, the corruption problem in Zambia
has progressively become worse as seen from our declining score on the Corruption Perception
Index.
As the election season continues to unfold towards 12th August, we have an opportunity as a
country to create a political heritage and culture that will espouse the selfless ideals and values
that drove our founding fathers in their battle for Africa’s political emancipation. We therefore
call upon all stakeholders in the electoral process to exhibit selflessness as they engage in the
process in order to not only enhance the integrity of our electoral process, but also as a
demonstration of commitment to the broader ideals of Africa’s political heritage and culture as
envisioned by our founding fathers.
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We would like to thank you all for tuning in to our update today, and we invite you to join us
again next week for our next update. Happy Africa Freedom Day and may God continue to
bless our country and our continent. Thank you.
