HOLES IN THE VOTERS REGISTER

After One Month of cross checking of the register of voters Independent Auditors have revealed mind blogging questions that need the attention of the Electoral Commission of Zambia and other relevant government agencies.

The Electoral body engaged External Consultants from Kenya led by Dismas Ong’ando; works began on the 5^th of June to 5^th of July this year.

Briefly Mr. Ong’ondi was trained at the University of Nairobi, in Kenya.

He is a qualified Information Security Management Business Continuity Management IT Governance.

What are the findings?

The audit confirmed that 1,697,762 new voters were added to the register.

On the other hand 142,383 ineligible voters were removed from the provisional register.

This will be subjected to debate but it is possible that somebody below the stipulated age to register as a voter may have penetrated the system and found him or herself on the final register.

Stakeholders will claim that some of those removed were eligible voters and they are coming from the perceived strongholds, more questions fewer answers available.

In addition, the audit established that the existing penalties on election offences are inadequate specifically related to the offence of multiple voter registrations.

The audit also identified 132,837 cases on the Voters’ register sharing National Registration Card numbers.

On this one suspicious will raise pointing all directions, which to me is understandable but it is not clear who these voters are and where they are from?

The auditors did not state publicly from which Constituencies or which Constituency registered the highest of the same voters bearing same details. 

It is everyone’s guess at the moment but I know fingers are pointing at the Patriotic Front for obvious reasons.

But it is also possible for a voter who is a supporter of any opposition political party to be involved in such scheme which some sections of Society may conclude to be a trick to rig the Elections.

2,555 cases shared National Registration Card numbers, names and dates of birth.

492 Voters share nearly FULL registration details with variations on gender, district code on the National Registration number and residence.

The audit has also revealed that over 62 thousand deceased voters have been removed from the Voters register in the last few years.

In this regard, the Commission has written to the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship requesting for death records of citizens that were voting age at the time of death.

The Department has replied to the Electoral Body and the Commission is analyzing the data availed to it following a query.

The Commission also wrote to the National Pensions Scheme Authority last Month requesting for the records of citizens that were of voting age at the time of death.

Napsa has since replied to the Commission which is also analyzing and processing the date availed to it.

On the alleged inclusion of suspected Foreigners in the Provisional Register of Voters, the auditors DID NOT find any evidence to support the allegations because all the registration records have associated NRC numbers that conforms to the legal requirement.

But the Auditors did not rule OUT the fact that it is possible for the Electoral Body to register Foreign Nationals, it is ONLY that they did not trace any leak to indicate the presence of outside Voters.

The Commission has invited political parties to inspect the Provisional Register and identify any non-Zambians who are on the list.

As a result of that call, two people have since been taken off the register.

Therefore the Electoral Commission proposes an amendment to the subsection 8(4) of the Electoral process Act to remove the ambiguity and make multiple registrations an offence regardless where they occur.

The Commission is currently considering objections that were submitted during the inspection of the Provisional Register of Voters and that any person found to be ineligible for the registration as a voter will be removed from the final Register before it is officially finalized on 31TH July, 2016.