Non Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council executive director Mr Ngwase Mwale said “From NGOCC’s perspective, an election is a very important part of our democratic dispensation and as for Zambia, we have had elections a number of times to be able to ensure that we all participate in putting in place a leader of our nation. I think there is a lot as Zambians that we have to do to make sure that our observation mechanisms are adequate and one of the other things is that we have heard from some of our colleagues that they don’t have enough [financial] resources to ensure that they have monitors on each of the polling stations.... The consequence of not having election monitors in all the polling stations is that the [electoral] process will definitely lack an acknowledgement by the ordinary citizens that all went well. We know that there are international and regional observers but also if we have local election monitors at each polling station, it gives credibility to the process when people feel that they are part and parcel of declaring the election free and fair.” NGOCC says limited electoral monitoring mechanisms have been put in place for next week’s presidential election. Non Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council executive director, Ngwase Mwale, said elections are an important aspect in a democracy and that it was important to have an alert and observant monitoring team that would protect citizens’ votes. She, however, said the Non Governmental Organisations have not put enough election monitoring mechanisms for next week’s presidential polls, and that such will cause a lack of acknowledgement of the free and fair electoral process by ordinary citizens. “From NGOCC’s perspective, an election is a very important part of our democratic dispensation and as for Zambia, we have had elections a number of times to be able to ensure that we all participate in putting in place a leader of our nation. I think there is a lot as Zambians that we have to do to make sure that our observation mechanisms are adequate and one of the other things is that we have heard from some of our colleagues that they don’t have enough [financial] resources to ensure that they have monitors on each of the polling stations,” Mwale said. “The consequence of not having election monitors in all the polling stations is that the [electoral] process will definitely lack an acknowledgement by the ordinary citizens that all went well. We know that there are international and regional observers but also if we have local election monitors at each polling station, it gives credibility to the process when people feel that they are part and parcel of declaring the election free and fair.” She added that despite the lack of resources to help them in executing electoral monitoring, NGOs should try hard to observe the process as they go out to cast their vote. “For those that won’t have the resources to monitor, I think they should be able to participate in the elections but apart from just voting, let them also try and observe what is going on [during the process],” Mwale said, adding that the Zambia National Women Lobby and the Young Women Christian Association were some of the organisations that would monitor elections under the NGOCC umbrella. She further pointed out that the number of independent election monitors should be large to enhance transparency in next Tuesday’s presidential election. Meanwhile, Mwale said the NGOCC expects Zambians to turn up in large numbers to vote. “As NGOCC, we are calling upon all the Zambians who are eligible to vote to make sure that they prepare to turn up in numbers and participate in the process and one of the important aspects that we must all recognise is that when we choose leaders, we choose for the whole country,” said Mwale. - See more at: postzambia/news.php?id=5427#sthash.A3vUHz69.dpuf
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 21:31:31 +0000
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