By MILDRED KATONGO –
THE Commission of Inquiry on Voting Patterns and Electoral Violence has said the apparent inclination for some people to resort to violence whenever aggrieved was lawless and unacceptable as grievances should be resolved in the courts of law and not through violence. The Commission chairperson Justice Munalula Lisimba (Retired), said this was promoting anarchy, which was not right in a democratic country like Zambia.
Justice Lisimba said the electoral violence was a new and alien phenomenon in Zambian politics, which the people should reject with the contempt it deserved.
He said that through the Commission, which the Government had established to inquire into the voting patterns and electoral  violence from 2006 to 2016, Zambians had an opportunity to roundly and loudly reject electoral violence by recommending appropriate measures that should be taken to avoid a recurrence of the scourge.
He said when he featured on a live CBC Television programme dubbed “Round Table”, that  if left unchecked, electoral violence had the potential to erode the positive gains that Zambia had achieved in democratic governance since the introduction of multiparty politics in 1991 for which the country is admired world-over.
This is contained in a statement released by Commission of inquiry on voting patterns and electoral violence Media and Public Relations Officer Betniko Kayaya.
“This Commission of Inquiry is critical in helping us get to the root cause of the electoral violence that has been witnessed in our country in the recent past, in particular during the 2016 general elections. We have to ask questions such as ‘what happened, how did it happen, where did it happen, who was involved and who were the victims. After this we will have to analyze the evidence that will be submitted to us by various people and thereafter recommend concrete measures to forestall future such occurrences,” he said.
He said when there was violence during elections, voters fear to go out and cast their votes and this could seriously undermine the country’s democracy.
Justice Lisimba urged the general public to come forward and make submissions to the Commission when it starts its public hearings at Nakatindi hall in Lusaka today.
“The Commission will hold public hearings at the Nakatindi Hall at the Civic Centre in Lusaka for three days from Monday through to Wednesday next week. I urge members of the public to come forward and make submissions to the Commission. The Commission will later move to other townships in Lusaka such as Mtendere, Chawama, Matero and Chilenje and thereafter the rest of the country,”  he said
President Edgar Lungu appointed the 15-member Commission of Inquiry on Voting Patterns and Electoral Violence on October, 21, this year.