Preliminary Report of the Ecumenical Observer Team for the December 27 2001
Tripartite Elections
It is in the country’s best interest also that the Church fosters spiritual and moral direction on all issues affecting the physical welfare of the Zambian people.
An Ecumenical Observer Team under the theme “Come Let us Reason together” was constituted by the Christian Council of Zambia and it consisted of 55 local and 5 international monitors from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
The stated brief for the Ecumenical Observer Team was "to enhance local and international confidence in Zambia’s democracy in general" and to contribute towards the integrity of the election process and outcomes of the 2001 Tripartite Elections in particular.
The Ecumenical Observer Team undertook to conduct itself in compliance with the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Election Observers and generally accepted standards of objective monitoring of elections. The Team had no declared party interests or any bias to the outcome of the elections safe that they be conducted freely and fairly.
This Report is intended to constitute the Observer Teams verdict on whether the 2001 Tripartite Elections can be certified as having been FREE AND FAIR.
In addition, we offer a number of Observations and Recommendations for consideration by the Electoral Commission as it strives to realize its mission of delivering to the Zambian People "an effective and responsive electoral process" which is transparent, free and fair.
As the church, we had indicated that if Zambia was going to continue being a beacon of hope in the region, it was important that the Country espoused to respect and adhere to all constitutional provisions in order to achieve good governance.
The Council therefore undertook to monitor the registration of voters, the filing of nominations, the use of government resources and media, the campaign period, polling, counting, announcement of the results and the inauguration.
1. Professionalism of Electoral Commission
It was our considered view that although the Commission worked tirelessly to facilitate elections, the commission was ill prepared for the eventualities that occurred such as the extended voting period, the late delivery of electoral materials and equipment. The reported mix up of delivery of electoral materials meant for different provinces.
In some cases the equipment was inadequate considering the high turn out of voters. The continuation of voting three days after the official voting day undermines the whole essence of stipulating the voting period.The Presiding officers lacked time management skills and this resulted in the voting procedure being tedious because the voters had to trek back and forth to collect the different ballot papers.
2. Role of the Media: Equal Access to the Public domain
We observed that although the media has a critical role to play in ensuring that political parties had equal access to coverage, many times there was media blackout for major political parties in preference for the ruling party. Only news and information that was perceived negative and therefore in favor of the ruling party was published.
3. Use of Government Resources for Party Election Campaign
Our observation was, as in the conduct of the public media, that the ruling party continued to utilize government resources for its election campaigns. This gave the ruling party’s candidates unfair advantage over the other political parties. In essence there was a lack of adherence to the electoral regulations concerning the use of government resources during election campaigns.
4. Training of Presiding Officer
The team also observed that some of the presiding officers were not adequately trained to handle crisis situations. In many cases the presiding officers were unable to make decisions to help them execute their duties efficiently opting to remain mute and referring all queries to the Returning officer who was not on hand to attend to the queries.
This was a major problem especially when it was evident that the voting period had to be extended. Many of the Presiding officers lacked contact numbers of the Returning officer who should have communicated the extension of the voting period. This resulted in the closing of some polling stations and thereby denying the people their right to vote.
Fully appreciating that that the announcement of the election date is the prerogative of the president, it was our view that 27th December was unsuitable for holding of elections mainly because the rainy season is at its peak. It is also an unsuitable time because many of the places are impassable during this period due to the bad state of road. As was evident in this election, many of the election materials had still not arrived at the centers a day before the elections.
6. Consideration of Tripartite Elections
It was our considered view that it was not necessary for the country to hold a tripartite election. What the government should have considered was the holding of the Presidential and general elections. The local government elections could have been deferred to a later date. The combination of the presidential and general elections requires a lot of work and the possibilities are that issues of local government will be overlooked.
7. Provision of Basic Convenience Amenities at Polling Stations
Many of the polling stations did not seem to have basic convenience amenities and this was a major source of concern especially that people spent 8 –10 hours on the queues waiting to cast their votes.
It was our considered view that although Zambians had been voting for a long time now there were still a large number of people who did not know what to do after obtaining their ballot papers. Quite clearly many people still do not have a fair knowledge of how to vote.
The design of the ballot papers also seemed to have contributed to the confusion because people were unable to distinguish between which one was meant for either the presidential, parliamentary and the local government portfolios
9. Necessary Security at Voting and Campaign Venues
Our observations were that although there was a fair presence of police at the polling station, the numbers were insufficient. Further, the presence of Intelligence officers at polling stations raised serious doubts about the election being held in a free and fair atmosphere. Zambia has enough police officers to maintain law and order at the polling station and we did not see why officers from the intelligence had to be brought in to reinforce the process.
10. Clarify status of Election Day
In the past the date of election had been declared a holiday to give people an opportunity to cast their votes. However there was no official notification to the public from the Electoral Commission as primary executors of elections. This resulted in panic by many people. People were caught up between going to vote and reporting for work.
11. Increase Number of Election Staff
The team also observed that the system did not provide for relief of the presiding officer at the polling stations. In this case many of the presiding officers and their assistants were made to work for hours on end without food, water or rest. This was extremely tiring especially in instances where they had to work throughout the night.
The apparent disregard of the Code of conduct by political parties and media undermines the integrity of the whole electoral process.
Due to the confusion that arose on the color of ballot papers, we suggest that the electoral Commission should consider different color codes for the different disciplines- the same should also be considered for the different ballot boxes. In addition we suggest that in future if Zambia holds a Tripartite election there should be different polling booths for the Presidential, parliamentary and local government and these should be placed in three separate rooms.
We further recommend that in future the Commission should consider computerizing the electoral process to avoid the logistical problem like late delivery of electoral materials.
After considering all the above components, our conclusion is that although the elections were peaceful and incident free, they cannot be certified as free and fair and therefore the government cannot be recognized as one that has been legitimately elected.
January 18th 2002.