ECZ Used Mysterious Figure Of 9 Million Voters As Benchmark – Chikwanda

Lusaka ~ Fri, 11 Dec 2020

By Chris Phiri

Patriotic Front Finance committee chairman Alexander Chikwanda says the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has to be commended as opposed to pilling abuse and derision on the hardworking men and women whom the country has entrusted to run elections.

Mr Chikwanda, the former finance minister, said the voter registration process has proceeded exceedingly well and mentioned that the 9 million voter registration projection set by the ECZ was only an assumption of the actual number of eligible voters on the ground.

“There was commotion and anxieties, some veritable, some quite misplaced at the onset of voters registration. The voter registration process, has, however, proceeded exceedingly well. At inception of the voter registration, a sort of mysterious figure of 9 million voters was used as a benchmark. There is need to put things in context,” Chikwanda said.

“As no census has taken place yet, the population of Zambia of

18 million is an estimate. Population projections are reasonably

accurate with low percentage errors. The assumption that is

debatable is that there are 9 million eligible voters. The

structure of our population is such that the segment below 18

years is about 60% which means those entitled to register as

voters are about 40% of the 18 million population or 7.2

million.”

He said as at close of business on December 8, 2020, a total of

5,366,324 voters were registered.

“This means that 74.53% of

eligible voters were captured using 7.2 million as a more

logical benchmark.

To get the vast number of voters which at the end of the

registration process will be just under 80% of those entitled

to vote, the political parties have done a fantastic job of

mobilization. One hopes that the turnout at elections will be equally good in an

atmosphere of tranquility and peace,” he said.

Chikwanda congratulated the PF party structures

throughout the country for the mobilization of people to

register in such impressive larger numbers with minimal

supervision from the top.