Greetings fellow Zambians. Our update today, which is the third of our weekly 2021 Elections
Project updates, will focus on three critical issues, namely the political parties’ adoption process;
independent candidates in the forthcoming elections; and anti-corruption strategies in political
parties’ manifestos.
- Adoption process in political parties
While the adoption of candidates to contest elections at parliamentary and local government
levels is an internal process of respective political parties, it is an important component of the
electoral process and one that inevitably draws public interest. It therefore goes without saying
that this process must be one that adheres to the key tenets of good governance such as
transparency, accountability, participation, and fairness, and one that ultimately contributes to
the enhancement of our country’s democracy.
It is from this premise that TI-Z wishes to express its utmost disappointment with the adoption
process as we have witnessed in the political parties in general, but more specifically in the
ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and the United Party for National Development (UPND). We have
noted that the process in both parties has been marred with countless allegations of vote
buying, nepotism, favoritism and other forms of corruption. The fact that these allegations are
being made from the inside by people that have been part and parcel of these adoption
processes attests to their veracity and means that they must be taken with the seriousness they
deserve. TI-Z therefore calls upon law enforcement agencies such as the Anti-Corruption
Commission (ACC) to actively look into these allegations and prosecute anyone found guilty of
any misconduct that borders on corruption. We have noted the laxity with which these serious
allegations have been taken even in public discourse and we urge the ACC and other law
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enforcement agencies to act in order to demonstrate that as a country we will not sit idle when
serious allegations of corruption have been made about an activity that has significant
implications for our electoral process.
Still on adoptions, we further wish to express our disappointment at the tendency by the highest
decision making organs of political parties to ignore the decisions of lower-level organs where
primary elections where conducted. Democracy is essentially about giving effect to the will of
the people, but when that will is ignored at different levels of political parties’ decision-making
structures, it does not bode well for the integrity of the electoral process. We have noted in the
same vein the unclear circumstances under which some aspiring candidates were adopted in
both the PF and UPND, resulting in protests by party members on both sides. To us, this is a
clear assault on our democracy as the will of the people is again being ignored.
Lastly on the adoption process, TI-Z wishes to note the deliberate effort that has been made by
the Socialist Party to adopt a high number of youths and women at Parliamentary and Local
government level. We have noted that in some circles, it is being lamented that the failure of the
infamous Bill 10 has spelt doom for the participation of youths and women in Zambia’s decisionmaking structures. We believe – as we always have – that there is currently nothing that legally
stops political parties from enhancing this principle of broad-based participation through the
adoption of more women, youths and other marginalized groups in society. In our view, the
Socialist Party has gone some way to demonstrate this by adopting a significant number of
women and youths. - Independent candidates
Arising from the adoption process, we have witnessed a number of candidates that were not
adopted by their respective political parties deciding to stand as independents, particularly at
Parliamentary level, while declaring their support for the presidential candidates of their parties.
We wish to remind all political stakeholders of Article 51 of the Zambian Constitution, which
provides for the elections of independent members of parliament but prescribes among other
things that the person aspiring to be such should not be a member of a political party. We
therefore urge all such aspiring independent candidates to officially resign from their political
parties before filing in their nominations. We wish to highlight and commend the decisions by
Mr. Binwell Mpundu and Ms. Rashida Mulenga to do just that and we urge other aspiring
independents to take a leaf and follow suit. We further urge the Electoral Commission of Zambia
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(ECZ) to pay particular attention to this as they receive the nomination papers from aspiring
independent candidates.
Beyond this, TI-Z also wishes to express concern at the intention by independent candidates to
support particular presidential candidates from political parties. In our view, this effectively
entails continued allegiance to the political parties concerned, and it defeats the whole ethos of
what an independent candidature should entail. In this regard, the independent candidates
cannot campaign as if they belong to a political party – so they cannot use election materials
with the portraits of their preferred presidential candidates in their campaigns. We again urge
the ECZ to be vigilant in ensuring that independent candidates adhere to this.
The spirit and principle of an independent candidacy should not be eroded in any way, and TI-Z
will also be on the lookout for any abrogation of this principle during the campaign period. - Anti-corruption strategies in manifestos
In our second election update last week, we gave an analysis of the anti-corruption strategies in
the PF and UPND party manifestos. As part of our continuing analysis of party manifestos, we
have concluded an analysis of the Socialist Party manifesto, and we now give our views about
how the party intends to deal with the corruption issue.
According to its manifesto, the Socialist Party recognizes corruption as a serious problem in
Zambia and plans to increase the capacity and independence of oversight institutions, law
enforcement agencies and the media. The party also plans to educate the civil service on the
criminality of corruption and greed and to establish an anti-white collar crime unit to fight
economic crimes, such as drugs-related offences and corruption.
Our view is that the suggested interventions aimed at fighting corruption are rather
underwhelming when one considers the scope and extent of the corruption problem that Zambia
faces. It is not clear for example why on one hand, the manifesto talks about increasing the
capacity of law enforcement agencies while on the other intending to set up another law
enforcement unit that will deal with economic crimes. TI-Z is of the view that an entity such as
the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has already demonstrated its ability to fight economic
crimes such as money laundering, and it is difficult to see how another unit essentially doing the
same will make the anti-corruption fight more streamlined or indeed more effective.
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Our advice to the Socialist Party is that they should consider a more encompassing and
strategic approach to their proposed anti-corruption interventions, and one that will convince
Zambians that it will succeed where existing similar interventions have failed. But as with the
other two manifestos that we have analyzed, we wish to commend the Socialist Party for also
recognizing corruption as an important issue that needs to be addressed.
Lastly, TI-Z continues to call on all political players to conduct themselves in a peaceful and
respectful manner even as the campaigns gather pace over the next few weeks. Political
players must always remember that they have a responsibility to maintain the peace that
Zambia has enjoyed since independence in order to ensure the full participation of all
stakeholders including the electorate in this year’s elections.
We look forward to you joining us for our next update next Tuesday, and we thank you for taking
the time to tune in today. God bless you and God bless our beloved Zambia.
