By GIDEON NYENDWA
ARTICLE 52(6) of the constitution which requires the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to cancel nominations and call for fresh nomination fees should be amended because it has the potential to throw a presidential election into a crisis, Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) has said.
FODEP president Mwamba Mumbuna also said the article had potential to disadvantage candidates because they were expected to file fresh nominations and pay new fees. Mr Mumbuna said the provision makes the process to become costly in an event that one of the candidates decided to pull out of the race or died.
He said this during the presentation of the preliminary report on the 2021 postelection. Mr. Mumbuna also said that nomination fees disadvantage special interest groups including women, youth and persons with disabilities because this could have contributed to the low participation of special interest groups at the various leadership levels.
He also noted a concern in the current electoral legal framework. Mr. Munduna also said the framework does not facilitate a level playing field for all candidates to compete in an election. He said it gives undue advantage to the incumbent to abuse authority to interfere with institutions of governance to the detriment of other candidates. Mr. Munduna said that there was a need to allocate enough time to the voter registration process
Author
