Voter registration in slow start

By ALEX NJOVU

THE continuous mobile voter registration exercise took off on a slow note yesterday with some centres registering low levels of potential voters by press time.
In some areas, the programme completely failed to take off because of confusion arising from demands to be paid allowances.
A survey carried out in some centres in Solwezi, Kitwe, Lusaka, Ndola and reports from the Zambia News and Information Services revealed that the registration of voters started late instead of the scheduled 08:00 hours.
In Lusaka, some registration centres opened after 14:00 hours as opposed to the scheduled 08:00 hours.
A check at Northmead Basic School in Lusaka Central constituency found only two people had registered by 15:00 hours.
The officer manning the centre said some people were turned away because they did not have supporting documents.
At NIPA College in Lusaka Central constituency, a few people were found registering but the registration equipment developed a fault, as it failed to print out information for the voter’s card.
At Lotus Basic School, Kamwala High School and Lusaka City Council hall in Kabwata constituency, no people were found registering.
A check at Chaisa community hall in Mandevu constituency showed that registration officers were deployed to the area after 14:00 hours.
At the Ndola Trust School, a lone registration officer and a police officer were found setting up equipment to start the process. Ndola town clerk Charity Mphande said in an interview yesterday that the officers were deployment late in the morning.
“Not everyone started the exercise at 08:00 hours because we had to pay them their lunch allowances, so basically the exercise started slightly late,” Mrs. Mphande said.
She urged all eligible Ndola residents to register as voters because the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and Government have spent a lot of money on the exercise.
“It is important that those of us who don’t have voters’ cards go and register as voters because Government and the ECZ have gone to great lengths to start this process…it is not cheap,” Mrs. Mphande said.
She said all those who will be turning 18 by July, 2010 are eligible to register as voters and should not wait until they attain the age.
Mrs Mphande said there will be no extension of the voter registration exercise and that people should take advantage of the ongoing exercise to register as voters.
In Kitwe, some registration centres did not open to members of the public who wanted to register as voters.
A check in some selected centres found people waiting for election officers.
A large crowd was found at Kitwe City Council main library in Nkana constituency and Bulangililo Basic School in Kwacha constituency where people wanted to register as voters.
Some teachers at Bulangililo Basic School said election officers went to the school in the morning but could not attend to the people because they did not have the materials.
Copperbelt provincial local government officer Solomon Sakala confirmed that some centres did not open yesterday.
“Some centres did not open yesterday, people should not lose hope, and they will be captured in due course. The election officers are supposed to be at a particular centre for about 12 days and then move to other centres,” Mr Sakala said.
Kalulushi town clerk Maxwell Kabanda said the exercise started on a slow note because some equipment failed in the morning.
He said the information technology officer started working on the equipment later in the day.
Elsewhere, the exercise failed to take off in the three constituencies of Solwezi because of logistical problems.