By CHILA NAMAIKO –

THERE will be no extension of the voter registration exercise beyond February 29, this year, as doing so will adversely affect preparations for the August 11 general elections, Vice-President Inonge Wina has told Parliament.

In a ministerial statement on the 2015-2016 voter registration exercise, Ms Wina said any extension of the exercise would also affect the 2016 elections timetable and that, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) would not be able to certify the final register of the voters by July 31, this year.

“Mr Speaker, ECZ had planned to conduct the mobile voter registration for a further 14 days from February 16 to 29, 2016, but regrettably due to lack of resources and the time constraint, the mobile voter registration can no longer take place,” she said.

The eligible persons who would turn 18 years by July 31, 2016, and have their particulars, appearing in the final register of voters, would qualify to participate in the elections.

Ms Wina said the provisional register of voters was expected to be complete by May 5, this year, in readiness for inspection by members of the public from May, 15 to 21 this year.

On the other hand, certification of the final register of voters would be done on July 31, this year.

“Mr Speaker, the consideration of appeals and objections arising from the exercise by the commission will continue up to July 6, 2016,” she said adding that later than that day, ECZ would not consider the appeals and objections.

The commission was conducting voter registration on a continuous basis at all district civic centres since September 14, 2015 which was expected to end on February 29, this year.

On statistics for each category of voter registration as at December 31, 2015, Central Province recorded 152, 627 voters, Copperbelt 195,877, Eastern 189, 959, Luapula 116,467 and Lusaka 286,014.

Muchinga Province has 86,857, Northern 136, 760, North-Western 81,047, Southern 231,344, and Western 116,891 making a grand total of new registrations as 1,593,840.

Ms Wina told the House that ECZ had targeted to register 1.7 million new voters and as at December 13, 2015, it had achieved 93.75 per cent of the targeted figure.

She said a further update on new registrations would be given after the close of the voter registration in district centres on February 29, this year.

Meanwhile, Ms Wina has warned some opposition politicians against sponsoring students in institutions of higher learning in the country to rebel against the Government.

Ms Wina said it was not Government’s desire to close the University of Zambia (UNZA) and the Copperbelt University (CBU), and has warned politicians against sponsoring students to engage in riotous behaviour.

She was responding to UPND’s Namwala Member of Parliament Lubezhi Moono, who wanted to know if Government takes pleasure in closing the University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University UNZA and CBU after students rioted last week over allowances.

The Vice-President said some opposition politicians were in the habit of sponsoring students to rebel against Government and she warned that such acts would not be tolerated.