The Presidential by elections was exceptional in many ways, primarily for the fact
that everyone was totally unprepared and the 90 days did not leave much time for all stakeholders to adequately prepare.
In addition, instead of the contemporary election of Parliament, local
government and the Republican President, these by-elections were only for the President and for a mandate of only 3 years instead of the usual 5.
Because of the circumstances and the limited time,
most cooperating partners were unwilling to fund sensitization and civic awareness through civil society and most opted to fund the Electoral Commission of Zambia instead, which is the organization
set up by the Government mandated to oversee election related issues.
They also simply put up posters and ran adverts in the media, and thus left the bulk of the rural folk a bit in the dark.
Civic awareness and monitoring elections DCA partners felt more needed to be done and started to carry out civic awareness as well as monitoring of the electoral process in
certain key constituencies.
6 civil society organizations namely: Southern Africa Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes, (SACCORD), Women for Change (WFC), Women in Law in Southern Africa
(WLSA), The Zambia National Women's Lobby (ZNWL), (Council of Churches in Zambia) CCZ and Legal Resources Foundation through the Southern Africa Legal Assistance Network (SALAN) were carrying out
civic awareness.
The DCA partners carried out the civic awareness in their respective constituencies and then as a group led by SACCORD, who has extensive experience at monitoring elections even at an
International level, they formed roving monitoring teams. This meant that 6 teams, made up of people from the various organizations were formed and went to monitor the elections in 6 different
provinces, namely, Southern, North Western, Luapula, Eastern and Central Provinces.
The infrastructure is a big challenge The various teams set off enthusiastically and
very patriotically to carry out the task. Almost all teams were challenged by the great distances they had to cover, sometimes sleeping only a couple of hours before resuming work and visiting the
various polling stations they were set to observe. In one instance the vehicle got stuck in the sand and the group had to seek the intervention of a farmer with an ox cart to remove them from the
sand. On the 6th of November the partners reported back to DCA and these were their major observations:
People were not adequately informed about the candidates and many felt they were not
able to make informed decisions;
A very low turnout was registered. They attributed this to various factors: work in the field, inadequate information, but also indecision on who to vote and
in some places the high temperatures registered could have played a part, given the distances to the polling stations.
In one case in Western Province, elections were carried out only 2 days
later because the vehicle from the Electoral Commission of Zambia was stuck and so the polling station did not have the materials to enable the voting to commence.
Mostly women went to
vote
There were no queues and voting was very smooth.
Overall the groups reported back to DCA that the elections were carried out in a free and peaceful manner. The fairness was
sometimes put in question for the ruling party had access to resources that the opposition did not. Some major flaws were also registered: a good number of people were this time around not able to
make use of 'Special Condition Vote' principle which is enshrined in the Constitution and which awards people away from their polling station for purposes of duty to vote in another polling station.
This resulted in many police officers - known to vote for the opposition- being disenfranchised. The same applies to many other civil servants and the monitors themselves. This goes to prove that
although things appear to be heading in the right direction, Zambia still has a long way to go in establishing real democracy. The ECZ also had its own challenges, especially in collecting results
from far flung areas.
Main recommendations from DCA-partnersThe main recommendations that were made and that the DCA partners will take to the Electoral Commission are:
The accreditation of monitors should be decentralized, to make accreditation easier and less time consuming;
ECZ should ensure that the Special Conditions vote is implemented
Ongoing voter registration should be implemented by ECZ
Ongoing civic awareness should be promoted by all stakeholders
The participants reported that the experience was
truly enriching for them. They came back with a strong feeling of patriotism and pride for having in their small way contributed to ensuring that the electoral process was smooth and carried out
according to the laws of the country.
By Anna Murru
Programme officer at DCA Office in Lusaka
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Kashmiri women voters queue to cast their votes during the third phase of local elections in Kapwara, 90 km (55 miles) north of Srinagar November 30, 2008. REUTERS/Danish Ismail (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR) ...
