By JAMES KUNDA –
COOPERATING partners through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have contributed K19.1 million towards the January 20, presidential election.
This was after Government, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the UNDP entered into a cooperative agreement to facilitate the funding to the electoral body ahead of the polls.
Among the countries that have contributed to the fund are; Ireland, Japan, Sweden and the United States of America (USA), while the Department for International Development (DFID) and UNDP have also contributed fund.
UNDP would coordinate direct electoral support to ECZ in a programme that will focus on components to guarantee credible elections.
UNDP resident representative in Zambia Janet Rogan said in a statement yesterday that Zambia’s electoral process had matured and it was essential that the country continued to hold free, fair and peaceful elections.
The Programme will ensure that voters are well informed to understand the electoral process, provide key electoral information materials such as the Electoral Act and the Electoral Code of Conduct. It will also facilitate the provision guidelines to law enforcement agencies on handling elections prior to and on polling day including alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to handle disputes prior to or after January, 20. Ireland has contributed K372, 000, the DFID K5, 640,000, Sweden K3, 600,000, Japan K3, 852,000, USA K2, 700,000 and the UNDP has provided K2, 400,000.