The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) told the nation that they were targeting to register nine million voters for the 2021 general elections. And when this announcement was made, stakeholders were happy that a lot of voters would be captured. It was a sign of good will from the Commission to enhance the country’s democracy.

However, ECZ spoiled the atmosphere when they again announced that they would abandon the old Voters’ Register to come up with a new one. They also announced that voter registration would be done within a month. This all but sullied what could have been a great moment in the history of our democratic dispensation.

The ECZ route and defiance was the beginning of all the problems we are seeing today. And, with sheer arrogance, ECZ officers dismissed genuine concerns from all stakeholders. Come the start of the registration period on November 9, everything that stakeholders feared emerged.

And today, Dundumwezi UPND member of parliament Edgar Sing’ombe is questioning the Commission’s readiness to conduct next year’s elections. Sing’ombe says, “Here in Nkandazovu, about 400 potential voters have not been captured. In Naluja 200 plus people have not been captured, in Kasukwe the system is on and off. ECZ are not ready for the elections. If they are then they are deliberately disenfranchising the people of Dundumwezi and Southern Province at large.”

These lamentations must be taken seriously. With less than a week to go, ECZ has captured just over 4.3 million voters. It’s either ECZ are not ready for next year’s elections or they are doing this deliberately, in collusion with the PF. From the very beginning, ECZ has never behaved as a referee in our electoral process. Instead, the institution has shown open disdain at concerns from stakeholders. We wonder what magic ECZ will use to reach their targeted nine million voters in the remaining few days, with this chaotic exercise they are conducting. Going by what they have captured, the ECZ’s defiance is about as watertight as a sand castle!

As we have stated before, no one can deny the need for the Electoral Commission of Zambia to build some reasonable levels of consensus on the electoral process.

And when people who are believed to be intelligent start acting unwisely suspicion rises. People start to think that their weaknesses are deliberate and conscious. And are intended to achieve a certain outcome. This is the case with the Electoral Commission of Zambia.

And indeed, the consequences of the apparent inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s approach to voter registration exercise were clearly pointed out by the opposition and other stakeholders.

But they were not ready to listen to anyone else other than their masters in the ruling party and its government. They were actually very arrogant about it – they knew it all.

They were told it won’t be possible for them to register nine million voters in one month. But their response was if they can handle so many voters in one day how can they fail to register nine million in one month?

As things stand today, they have no choice but to extend the voter registration period. They equally have to up their game!

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