Zambian President Edgar Lungu
Zambia has formed a technical committee to look at ways of holding its 2021 general election in the midst of coronavirus.
The formation of the committee came after the February 22, 2021 consultative meeting between the Ministry of Health and the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
The resolution of that meeting, was to form a technical committee to work on mainstreaming COVID-19 prevention mechanisms into the 2021 General Election Calendar, local Zambian media reports say.
ECZ Corporate Affairs Manager, Patricia Luhanga, says in a statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka that membership of the committee has been drawn from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Local Government, Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) 5 and the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (OVP-DMMU).
According to the statement, others include Zambia Centre for Inter Party Dialogue (ZCID), Civil Society Organisation, Zambia Police Service, Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) – Zambia as well as the Electoral Commission of Zambia which is leading the process.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia is believed to have presented the Election Calendar with associated activities while the Ministry of Health and the Zambia National Public Health Institute presented the current 2 country scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic which form a basis for what the Committee will be focusing on.
“As a way forward, the meeting agreed to among other things formulate the terms of reference for the Technical Committee to which the Ministry of Health is to provide disaggregated demographic data on how COVID-19 has affected each population segment,” the statement indicated.
It further said the meeting also agreed to review the adequacy of the legal framework to ascertain levels of adherence and to identify structures that will support the cascading of information to the rest of the stakeholders.
“The Technical Committee will be meeting on a regular basis to speed up the formulation of guidelines and allow for timely engagement of political parties and other stakeholders,” according to the statement.
Zambia is expected to head to the polls on Thursday, August 12, 2021, in its general election.
By Melvin Tarlue