28 August 2008
THE 2006 voters' roll will be used in the presidential by-elections to be held in the next 80 days and less than the 3.9 million registered voters will take part in the poll, Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) director, Danny Kalale has said.
Mr Kalale said on a live Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) television programme on Tuesday night that the commission did not have sufficient time to conduct fresh registration of voters ahead of the presidential by-election.
Mr Kalale said the ECZ would only issue voters' cards to people already on the roll who had lost their documents, those who had theirs damaged in natural calamities like floods and those who had shifted.
He explained that the department of national registration would issue national registration cards (NRCs) to voters who may have lost the documents but still had their voters' cards.
"All the resources from the Government and donors to hold the presidential by-elections are there. Unfortunately due to limited time, we will rely on the 2006 voters' roll because we did not anticipate the death of the president," he said.
He said although 3.9 million people registered to vote in the last elections, less than that number would take part because some had since died while others may not just take part for their own reasons.
"We are confident that we will hold free and fair elections because the support is there," he said.
Mr Kalale called upon all stakeholders to participate in their respective roles, stressing that the goal of making the elections free and fair would not be achieved by ECZ alone but the political parties, donors, the Government and the voters.
He said the ECZ, in consultation with the acting President, Rupiah Banda would announce the date of elections within 90 days of Dr Mwanawasa's death in accordance with the law.
On complaints about delays in releasing the results from rural areas, Mr Kalale said logistics normally hindered reporting because of the location of some of the polling stations, which were far from the central business district.
Mr Kalale said the voters' education would help key players understand the challenges which the commission faced and hoped that some of these problems could be overcome with the input of all the players.
He also defended the ECZ on the complaints by some opposition political parties, which accused the public media of not giving them equal coverage with the ruling party during the campaign periods.
"We have the electoral code of conduct in place. On unfair access to the public media during the campaign period, this issue is mainly the media who seem to be unfair to other political players but our interest as ECZ is to see everyone fairly covered," he said.
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