THERE has been debate surrounding the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s (ECZ) decision to introduce a new system under which election results
would now be transmitted electronically between voting and tabulation centres.
The new system to be used fully in the 2016 general elections, according to ECZ, would ensure improvement in the dissemination of results as information between the polling and tabulation centres would be more accurate than at present.
Already being implemented under a pilot project, this new system was first used in the Katuba Constituency parliamentary by-election, which
was scooped by United Party for National Development (UPND)’s Jonas Shakafuswa in February, this year.
However, when ECZ moved to implement the system in the recently held Kasenengwa and Vubwi by-elections, political parties objected the move as it raised “suspicions” of planned flaws in the electoral process.
Voicing his concerns on the new system, MMD president Nevers Mumba said the electronic mode of transmitting results could not be implemented without concrete consultations of the parties involved.
The MMD leader’s remarks were, however, countered by Patriotic Front (PF) deputy secretary General Bridget Atanga who said ECZ was at liberty of implementing strategies aimed at improving the countries electoral process.
Electoral process activists such as the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) commended the ECZ for the innovation as it would ensure transparency and efficiency in the electoral process.
Both Dr Mumba and Ms Atanga are right in that as much as the new system of transmitting results is “efficient”, there is need for stakeholder consultation beyond political parties.
Political parties are not the only ones involved in the polling process as voting is the democratic right of every Zambian who exercise their choice of leaders.
The ECZ therefore should have first embarked on sensitisation of the masses to make known the electronic transmission system to the lay person who
often act on personal conviction.
Many will recall that during the 2011 general elections, people declined to use pens provided by the ECZ for fear that it was some plot to rob votes from one candidate and passing them on to another.
However, there is need for all sectors to embrace modern technology in their operations to promote efficiency.
The world has drastically migrated into the Information Communication Technology (ICT) zone now and everything is being done online.
Obviously, the ECZ had monitored the efficiency of the electronic result transmission system in other countries and they saw it fit to implement it in Zambia.
Innovation is now the way to go and the ECZ should be commended for their efforts in implementing this new system as it signals that the country is developing on all fronts.
Caution is, however, given to the Commission regarding the control of the system as ICT management requires expertise, especially in terms of human resource.
The Commission should invest in staff training to ensure effective management of software and hardware equipment to be used in the transmission of votes electronically.
Commotion once engulfed the general elections in Kenya when that country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IECB) introduced a mechanised voting system that was supposed to improve efficiency and reliability of their ballot counting.
Experts described the whole election process as “shambolic” because the glitches began on the first day of voting when virtually every instrument the IEBC had deployed for the election failed to function.
The poll books, the servers, the telephonic transmission, the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) all failed despite the colossal amounts of money spent on acquiring them.
Two days after the poll, the electronic Result Transmission System  (RTS) was abandoned and a manual count began, with candidates suspecting that official results were tempered with.
The whole process failed as the technology that was supposed to electronically transmit information by server to the Boma’s tallying centre flopped.
It is hard to imagine such a dramatic turn of events in Zambia, especially that the country has witnessed peaceful general elections through and through.
Stakeholders in the electoral system now need to collaborate and set a common agenda on the new vote results system as the 2016 general elections are drawing nigh. Send comments and contributions to jameskunda91@gmail.com or call and text to 0964317110/0973182006.