By CHIDA SAKALA –
THE Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has said it would only disqualify a candidate after thorough investigations have taken place.
ECZ public relations manager Chris Akufuna said during the week that even if the organisation had powers to disqualify a candidate, it was not as easy as it sounded.
He explained that the organisation needed to have adequate facts on the ground before it could disqualify a candidate.
“You cannot just disqualify a candidate based on mere accusations because there are a lot of things going on, there are issues of other political parties using another political party’s regalia so you can’t surely disqualify a candidate based on that,” he said.
Mr Akufuna stated that people should understand that it was not just a matter of either delaying or rushing into disqualifying a candidate but that there were serious implications that came with disqualifying a candidate if matters weren’t handled carefully.
The clarification follows complaints that have been raised by some candidates contesting in this year’s general elections that the rise in political violence that the country was experiencing was due to ECZ’s delay in implementing its powers of disqualifying candidates perpetrating violence.
