Election bill a UPND driven project – Makebi
By Adrian Mwanza
THE proposed Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) electoral reform bill is a United Party for National Development (UPND) project meant to deal with opposition political parties ahead of the August 13 general election, says Patriotic Front (PF) presidential aspirant Makebi Zulu.
In an interview with The Mast, Zulu said the ECZ was now interfering with political party operations by dictating how they should operated and who associated with.
Zulu said it was not the mandate of the ECZ to decide how a political party or movement should be registered for it to participate in elections.
“It is surprising that the ECZ has so much interest in political parties because in the past there were no problems. So what are they trying to do?” he said.
Zulu said despite ECZ disowning the leaked undemocratic bill, it had continued scheming on how it would help the UPND win the 2026 general election by manipulating the system.
He said the process was flawed and the UPND was trying to cover up the irregularities it was doing through ECZ.
“I am sure the ECZ is just targeting opposition political parties so that it can create confusion in political parties to reject participation as a result of the confusion,” Zulu said.
Recently, ECZ chief electoral officer Brown Kasaro featured on Diamond TV, where he said political alliances should register with the Registrar of Societies if they wanted to contest an election.
Kasaro also advised candidates to only use campaign materials and symbols of the party under which they had filed nominations.
But Zulu said the move was targeting the opposition because the UPND was not comfortable with its fallen popularity and was scared of losing.
“This move is meant to disadvantage the opposition. This is wrong and should be condemned in the strongest terms,” he said.
