Voters’ register compromised – UPND

UPND Members

The opposition UPND says it is outraged by the revelations in today’s Post Newspaper concerning the registration of foreign nationals as voters.

In a statement, party secretary general Steven Katuka says the evidence presented in the ‘exposé’ shows that there is little doubt that serious attempts to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming 11th August elections are underway.

Katuka challenged the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to take quick and urgent action to rectify the situation if elections are to go ahead with any shred of legitimacy.

He called on all well-meaning citizens, civil society groups, the Church and the international community to press the ECZ for action and to support them in resolving what he termed as gross distortions that have been revealed to reside within the Register of Voters.

“The Post article clearly shows how countless foreign nationals, residing along the border areas, have been found in possession of green Zambian National Registration Cards (NRCs) and Voters Cards issued in the recent registration process. Investigations by agents along the Malawian and Tanzanian borders have uncovered hundreds of cards already. This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Katuka said.

“It is clear that the voter registration process has been very seriously undermined. This is the kind of outright attempt to alter the result of the elections that we have been raising concerns about for some time now, but no action has been taken.

“Following the recent voter verification phase, in which a number of specific concerns were raised, it became clear that the prospects for free, fair and credible elections would depend heavily on the so-called independent audit of the Voters’ Register. Yet, as we have alluded to before, there are grave concerns regarding the credibility of the two Kenyan consultants that have been contracted to conduct the audit, with reports in the Kenyan media alleging that one of the consultants had previously been fired from his role at the Kenyan Electoral Commission for gross indiscipline and impropriety,” he added.

Katuka further explained that despite the party being part of all the ECZ stakeholders meetings where the issue of foreign voters has been consistently brought up, the ECZ has pushed back at every stage and asked those with evidence to provide proof.

He revealed that at the recent ECZ stakeholders meeting by the independent auditors tasked to audit the Voters’ Register, the ECZ assured all parties that there were no foreign voters registered.

He has smce doubted the integrity of the independent auditors and that of ECZ.