voters’ cards
Anthony Kunda in Lusaka
THE Zambian government has sworn it will prosecute former president Kenneth Kaunda in the face of upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections on November 18. Kaunda has been holding rallies around the country in the last week, asking people to turn their voters’ registration cards over to his party, so as to effect a mass voter boycott. He has already collected over 300000 cards.
While Kaunda was initially in the running for a presidential comeback in the elections, he was forced to withdraw after the government amended the Constitution earlier this year, disallowing anyone with foreign parents – including Kaunda – from running for president.
Kaunda plans to collect at least 1,8-million of the 2,2-million voters’ cards issued, to petition the Zambian Supreme Court to have the election results declared null and void on grounds of low voter turn-out, and to force fresh elections, hopefully following another constitutional amendment which would allow him to contest the elections.
But Home Affairs Minister Chitalu Sampa said this week that the government would prosecute Kaunda. “Wrongfully inducing a boycott of elections is an offence under section 92 of the Penal Code punishable by six months’ imprisonment without an option of a fine,” Sampa said. “Government’s patience with Kaunda’s antics has run out. It’s not a question of if. We are going to arrest him, charge and prosecute him for attempting to disrupt elections.”
Police spokesman Francis Musonda said 10 officials working for Kaunda’s United National Independence Party (Unip) have been arrested so far, and will appear in court next week.
But Kaunda said at a press conference earlier this week he would not be cowed by threats of prosecution, and that the police should arrest him rather than his workers. “Don’t arrest Unip members. Come and arrest me, the party president, who issued the instructions for people to surrender their voters’ cards.”
Although Sampa was adamant that Kaunda’s prosecution is imminent, the Law Association of Zambia has said there is nothing illegal about the collection of the cards. The association’s chairman, Sakwiba Sikota, said this week: “It is a perfectly legitimate way of expression of disapproval. There is nothing illegal about urging people to surrender their cards and boycott the impending polls.”
Some election monitoring groups, among them Zambia Independent Monitoring Team (ZMIT), have similarly said charges against Kaunda would not stick. ZMIT chairman Alfred Zulu said: “What Kaunda and Unip are doing is a civic right, which is vital in a democracy. I doubt whether the charge will hold.”
To undercut Kaunda’s scheme, the elections office has appealed to people who have given away their cards to apply for temporary ones. Election office press liaison officer Joel Sikazwe said: “We can supply those at short notice, even days before the polls date.”
Some opposition parties who have decided not to boycott the polls have castigated Kaunda’s move as conterproductive. Zambia Democratic Congress (ZDC) general secretary Azwell Banda said: “Kaunda’s actions are cowardly and foolish. Why should we all boycott the elections just because his party is boycotting? If he is not interested in the polls, he must keep off.”