Chikwanda hails ECZ for capturing 74 pc of eligible voters

By OLIVER SAMBOKO
THE Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) should be commended for recording a remarkable landmark in the voter registration exercise by managing to capture over 74 percent of the eligible voters, PF chairperson for finance, Alexander Chikwanda has said.
Mr Chikwanda, who is former Minister of Finance said the ruling party was glad that the voter registration has proceeded exceedingly well despite anxieties from some political players.
He said according to available data, as at close of business on December, 8, 2020, 5, 366, 324 voters were registered, meaning 74.53 percent of eligible voters were captured using 7.2 million as a more logical benchmark.
Mr Chikwanda also said there was need to put things in the right context on the correct number of eligible voters in the country noting the nine million benchmark could not be the correct figure considering that Zambia’s population of 18 million was just an estimate.
“Despite commotion and anxieties, some veritable, some quite misplaced at the onset of voter’s registration, the voter registration process, has, however, proceeded exceedingly well. At inception of the voter registration, a sort of mysterious figure of nine million voters was used as a benchmark. There is need to put things in context,” he said.
He said while population projections are reasonably accurate with low percentage errors, the assumption that Zambia has nine milliom eligible voters is debatable.
“As no census has taken place yet, the population of Zambia of 18 million is an estimate but whle population projections are reasonably accurate with low percentage errors, the assumption that there are nine million eligible voters in Zambia is debatable,” Mr Chikwanda said
He observed that the structure of Zambia’s population is such that the segment below 18 years is about 60 percent which means those entitled to register as voters are about 40 percent of the 18 million population or 7.2 million citizens.
Mr Chikwanda also thanked PF party structures throughout the country for the mobilisation of people to register in such impressive larger numbers with minimal supervision from the top leadership.