SECOND UPDATE ON PREPARATIONS FOR VOTER REGISTRATION BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION OF ZAMBIA, THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ESAU E. CHULU, DURING A STAKEHOLDERS MEETING ON TUESDAY, 8 TH SEPTEMBER, 2015, AT MULUNGUSHI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE. Members of the Commission, Leaders of Political Parties, Leaders of Church mother-bodies, The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Deputy Registrar General - Department of National Registration, Passports and Citizenship, The President of the Law Association of Zambia, Leaders of Civil Society Organisations, The Director and Members of staff, Electoral Commission of Zambia, 1
The Media, Ladies and gentlemen. Once again, I have the pleasure to welcome you to yet another meeting, to brief you on the latest developments in the preparations for the forthcoming voter registration exercise. The voter registration exercise, which will update the existing permanent Register of Voters, will commence on 14 th September, 2015. The major activities during this exercise will be the registration of new voters, amendments to the existing voter details, and removal of the deceased voters. Since our last meeting on 12 th August, 2015, the Commission has made a lot of progress in preparing for the forthcoming voter registration exercise. 2
I would like to confirm to you that all the Voter Registration Kits have been delivered. Training of personnel at various levels has commenced. The voter registration media campaign commenced on 24 th August, 2015, with adverts in the print and electronic media. As you may know, the Commission has set 24 th September, 2015, as the polling date for the National Assembly by elections for Lubasenshi and Solwezi West constituencies, as well as Local Government by elections in nine (9) wards. At that time, the voter registration exercise would have commenced, and the two exercises cannot run concurrently because the same 3
centres and, in some cases, the same officers would be used for both exercises. The Commission has therefore decided to suspend the voter registration exercise in the affected constituencies and wards, for a period of 7 days from 21 st to 27 th September, 2015. In order to encourage as many youths to register as voters, the Commission has decided that any person that would turn 18 years by, and on 31 st July 2016, would be allowed to register as a voter. The Department of National Registration Passports and Citizenship (DNRPC), of the Ministry of Home Affairs, commenced the second phase of the Mobile National 4
Registration exercise on Friday 4 th September, 2015, a month after the scheduled date. The second phase will cover Eastern, Lusaka, Southern and Western provinces. What this means is that, at the time the Commission will be completing the mobile Voter Registration, on 11 th November 2015, the DNRPC would not have completed the second phase of the Mobile issuance of NRCs. This further means that the third phase, covering Copperbelt, Luapula and North Western provinces would also be delayed by at least a month. The Commission has therefore decided to end the countrywide Mobile Voter Registration exercise on 11 th November 2015, as initially planned. What this means is that there will not be any extension of the voter registration in any province. However, 5
the Commission will conduct a countrywide Voter Registration exercise for 14 days in March 2016, to cater for Zambians that would have obtained their National Registration Cards after the 2015 mobile Voter Registration exercise. The exact dates will be announced in due course. The Commission believes that the revised programme will have addressed the concerns that you raised in our last meeting. If there are any areas that I may not have addressed, please feel free to seek clarification. I thank you. Wendy Lukonga 7/9/2015 14:41 Deleted: 6