The Christian Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG)) has recommended that voter education be intensified in all the civic centers in the districts in order to make people understand the requirements as voters.
Presenting a Long Term Observation (LTO)) report on the electoral landscape on Zambia on Thursday 18th February, 2016, CCMG spokesperson Fr. Cleophas Lungu said that voter education is a priority given that the period for registration has been reduced by a month.
Fr Lungu urged political parties to take the opportunity to encourage the public to come out in big numbers and register as voters.
Fr. Lungu further recommended that voter education should start right away for that there are new issues in the electoral process due to the amendment of the constitution which people need to know them before the exercise.
CCMG has pleaded to the ECZ to safeguard the electoral equipment/kits which in the past have been reported stolen from the registration centres. CCMG stated that in order to avoid speculations and malpractices in the electoral process, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) should issue a statement to update the public about the equipment/kits that were stolen during the mobile voter registration.
Fr. Lungu said that having witnessed violence in the period under review, CCMG is appealing to all political parties to refrain from acts of violence including hate speech, physical violence and harassment and declaring “no go zone areas” for some parties during campaigns; instead CCMG wants all political parties to observe and abide with the rule of law.
On another hand CCMG also recommends to the Zambian Police Service to be professional in the execution of their duties and to the media houses CCMG wants them to report issues credibly and accurately; without fear or favour. “Media houses should be objectively to avoid partisanship and bias in their news coverage,” he said.
The Christian Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG) was launched on 28th November 2014 to monitor the 20th January 2015 presidential election. It is made up of four Faith-Based organizations. These are Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR), and Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) through Caritas Zambia.
By Mwenya Mukuka, Communications officer, ZEC