By SANFROSSA MANYINDA
ALLEGATIONS by All People’s Congress President Nanon Msoni that the political setup is skewed to favour the ruling party are baseless, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has said. ECZ Corporate Affairs manager Patricia Luhanga said the allegations were baseless because the complainants could not point out the specifics of the accusations.
Ms Luhanga maintained that no political party, not even the ruling party, was involved in the generation of the electoral calendar as alleged. She said in an interview that the electoral calendar was independently developed by the ECZ in January this year, stating that all stakeholders were aware of all the contents.
“The calendar was developed by the ECZ and not a political party in January this year and it has consistently been sharing dates with associated activities with stakeholders such as political parties and the media. How then is it in the hands of the mentioned political party?” she wondered.
Mr Msoni accused the ECZ of allowing the ruling party to make changes to the time table while other political parties were not allowed. He also alleged that the ECZ openly provided institutional and logistical support to the ruling party ahead of the August 12 elections. Mr Msoni added that the ECZ was not demonstrating equal treatment of all parties in the way and manner it was doing things
