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EU URGES RESULTS VERIFICATION BEFORE INAUGURATION.
Updated: 31 December 2001 by By Hugh McCullum and Kondwani Chirambo in LUSAKA Pressure mounted on the Chief Justice of Zambia to delay the inauguration of Zambia's third president following strenuous allegations of irregularities in the closely contested poll here. The European Union (EU) observer mission today urged the authorities to address the serious concerns raised by Zambian monitors, international observers and opposition parties before the inauguration ceremony scheduled for Wednesday morning. Several hundred opposition supporters besieged the Lusaka Supreme Court as their leaders, for the second day running, lodged a written protest letter with Chief Justice Mathew Ngulube to postpone the ceremony until the anomalies and flaws in the electoral process had been dealt with. The chief justice under Zambian law is also the chief returning office who would announce the final results The High Court has the power in Zambia to cancel the results of any election in which corruption, misconduct or illegal acts have been done to influence the outcome of the elections. Six opposition parties said they would not recognize the results of the elections and called on the chief justice not to declare a winner. Tensions are high as the ruling Movement Movement for Multiparty Democracy(MMD) has overtaken leading opposition challenger Anderson Mazoka of the United Party for National Development (UPND). Late today Mwanawasa was leading Mazoka with 454,000 votes to 439,000. Results from twenty-one constituencies are still to be announced. The leaders of the UPND, United National Independence Party (UNIP), Heritage Party (HP), National Citizens Coalition (NCC), Zambia Republican Party (ZRP), the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) signed and presented the letter to the chief justice at noon on Tuesday amid heavy police presence and throngs of supporters noisily and angrily expressed their frustration with the election. Police and military are on alert and many observers fear civil unrest. The Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) and the Coalition 2001, the principal Zambian monitoring groups along with the churches, agree with the statements of the three international observer missions from the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Carter Center and the EU on the conduct of the poll -- all of them clear-cut on poor election management, state media bias and a generally unlevel playing field, as well as many irregularities in the field during this election. The international observers and local monitors have been working in close co-operation with each other. The Coalition 2001 said allegations of rigging should not be taken lightly as one person had already been arrested after allegedly attempting to stuff ballot boxes in Matero Constituency, one of the oldest parts of the capital Lusaka. FODEP, Coalition 2001 and the EU report that some figures do not tally and recounts were going on in the Copperbelt by late Monday. Voting in Zambezi West, Chavuma in North-Western Province and Mporokoso in the North was still on-going, five days after the official poll closed. "We have set out many serious shortcomings of this election before, during and after polling day. We are clear that the electoral process, particularly in many areas on polling day, was badly planned and poorly managed at the national level. The delays and the slowness of the process were avoidable and inexcusable," said Michael Meadowcroft Chief Observer of the EU Mission. The EU, as did other observers, pointed to the use of government resources by the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) and District Administrators who are officially designated as civil servants for campaigns as an unfair practice. Opposition parties were denied, in some cases, permission to hold rallies, the EU said. The EU commended the people of Zambia for coming out in large numbers to vote in peace but lamented the frustrations they went through due to late delivery of ballot boxes in key areas, missing voter material and equipment. The enthusiasm of voters was eroded by the delays in processing them, he added. An undisclosed number had been disenfranchised as exhausted polling staff closed doors on them. Coalition 2001 chair Ngande Mwanajiti told reporters earlier: "There is no clear explanation as to how the electoral commission was receiving results from constituencies. How transparent was the procedure for relaying election results to ECZ headquarters? Was there room for results to be doctored? If so, what measures were in place to counter such doctoring?" The Electoral Commission is besieged by anxious party agents, journalists and monitors all trying to establish the outcome of what has been the closest but also the most drawn out and controversial electoral process in Zambia's 37-year history of independence (SARDC). This article can be reproduced with credit to SARDC and the author Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) |
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