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ECZ pledges enhanced access to vote
Chitambo, Sept 16, 2014, ZANIS……The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) says it has a mandate to enhance access to the electoral process for eligible voters.
Speaking during a delimitation meeting held at Mukando Secondary Schoo, ECZ Operations Manager Dylan Kasonde said the Commission wants every voter to access a nearby polling station.
“We want every voter countrywide to have easy access to Polling Stations so that voter turnout is enhanced,” he said.
He said the meeting was intended to create new polling stations so that distances are reduced between polling stations and consequently making it easier for the electorate to access the polling stations.
“Voters are required to cover long distances during voter registration and elections that is why we want to increase polling stations in the district to ensure that distances are reduced,” he said.
Mr. Kasonde also added that the Commission had established that some of the polling stations are located in places that are not convenient for conducting elections and hence the delimitation involves re-location to more suitable sites.
“We don’t want to have polling stations were there are no people so we want to ensure that there is good population settlements in the areas,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr. Kasonde said the Commission would like to work in collaboration with the department for National Registration to ensure that they avail NRC’s to people that have attained the age of 18 during voter registration.
“As you all know, someone needs an NRC to register as a voter so we want to work hand in hand with the department of NRC’s so that they can be availing registration cards as we register voters,” he said.
ECZ has started the delimitation process of wards and polling district boundaries throughout the country.
In Chitambo district, five new polling districts were added namely Lubembe in Muchinka ward, Chama Misheck in Lulimala ward, Chipaata in Chitambo ward, Kalungu in Chipundu ward and Miseshi in Mpelembe ward bringing the total number of polling districts to 32.
In addition, two new council wards were added and these are Nakatambo and Lusenga wards bringing the total number of wards to seven.
However, the Commission will only be able to effect the delimitation of the new council wards after the Ministry of Local Government issues a Statutory Instrument to legalize the new wards.
