Media Personnel, Staff of the Electoral Commission of Zambia, Ladies and Gentlemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good morning everyone and welcome to this morning\u2019s briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just\nto recap that the last time we met here, we briefed you on the suspension of campaign\nrallies in the view of the increase in COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nwas done to safeguard the lives of people who form a critical part of\nstakeholders in the electoral process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming\nto today, you may recall that the Commission issued a statement on Friday 11th<\/sup>\nJune 2021 noting with serious concern the escalating political violence in\nLusaka and selected parts of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthat statement, we indicated that the Patriotic Front and the United Party for\nNational Development were the main perpetrators of electoral violence in the\ncountry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commission reminded the two political parties\nthat the Electoral Code of Conduct which their leaders swore oath to applies to\nthis period of campaigns and must be adhered to without exception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commission further stated that it would not\nhesitate to invoke the Code of Conduct and suspend indefinitely all manner of\ncampaigns should these violent acts continue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies and\ngentlemen, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nCommission indicated that it would be following the activities of both the PF\nand UPND with keen interest and should electoral violence continue, both\nparties risk being suspended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly,\nthe Commission has observed the continued disregard of the Electoral Code of\nConduct. Despite the counsel rendered, the vice has continued and thus far,\nescalated levels of violence were experienced in the following districts <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies\nand gentlemen, <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nCommission has pursuant to Article 229, Sub-article 2 (e) \nof the Republican Constitution and Subparagraphs 4 (1) (c) (d) (i) and\n11 (d) of the Electoral Code of Conduct suspended\nwith immediate effect<\/strong> all manner of political campaigns for the Patriotic\nFront and United Party for National Development in Lusaka, Mpulungu, Namwala and\nNakonde Districts due to escalating violence. The suspension will be reviewed\nafter 14 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nCommission has since written to the affected Secretary Generals informing them\nof this decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthis regard, the concerned political parties will not be allowed to conduct any\nform of campaigns and all media houses are advised not to cover any political\nparty activities for the two parties in the said jurisdiction. In the same\nvein, the Zambia Police should not allow any political activities by the\naffected parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally,\nthe Commission has suspended all political party road shows across the country\nas the findings on the ground indicate that road shows are not only in breach\nof COVID-19 protocols but also the Electoral Code of Conduct. Political parties\nhave merely converted the road shows into mobile rallies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies\nand gentlemen, as you are fully aware, the country has continued to record an\nincrease in the number of COVID-19 cases and Zambia currently has one of the\nhighest infection rates with our hospital bed capacity filling up, coupled with\nan increasing demand for oxygen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nwould like to reiterate that given the conduct of political parties and their\nlack of adherence to COVID-19 guidelines, we have a moral obligation to\nsafeguard the lives of the people. We further need to ensure that the\nenvironment does not deteriorate to a level that would facilitate the conduct\nof elections impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further,\nwe have noted with dismay that the road shows are being used to instigate\nviolence, pulling down of campaign materials and instilling a sense of fear in\nthe general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Campaigns\nare meant to give hope to the public through the sharing of campaign messages\nand not the maiming of each other and public disorder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies and\ngentlemen,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nCommission has also restricted to a maximum of three members of any political\nparty or independent candidates per household to conduct door to door campaigns\nand one vehicle for the public address campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Political\nparties and independent candidates are also reminded that it is unlawful to\nplace campaign posters on private property and that includes residential\nproperty without consent, and the owners are at liberty to remove such\nmaterials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nCommission would like to encourage all political players to be tolerant and\npromote coexistence, and will not condone\nlawlessness regardless of the political party perpetrating violence<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nconclusion, let me highlight an important matter – the Commission is in the\nprocess of preparing accreditation for stakeholders who may wish to monitor the\nprinting of ballot papers in Dubai. All stakeholders will be updated on the\nprocedures and requirements in due course <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nthank you and now invite questions <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Commission has pursuant to Article 229, Sub-article 2 (e) of the Republican Constitution and Subparagraphs 4 (1) (c) (d) (i) and 11 (d) of the Electoral Code of Conduct suspended with immediate effect all manner of political campaigns for the Patriotic Front and United Party for National Development in Lusaka, Mpulungu, Namwala and Nakonde Districts due to escalating violence. The suspension will be reviewed after 14 days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,98,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press-release","category-public-notice"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3904,"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions\/3904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elections.org.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}