UPND CRIES FOUL, WARY OF INTERNET SHUTDOWN, COMPLAINS TO ECZ

By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA WITH hours remaining to voting, UPND has written to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) against any decision by Government to shut down access to the internet on polling and counting day. UPND Secretary General Batuke Imenda in a letter addressed to ECZ, Attorney General, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary and Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) demands for immediate annulment of any present or future decision to shut down internet access. Mr Imenda alleged that on Monday, Information Permanent Secretary Amos Malipenga announced the government’s threat to shut down access to the internet on polling day.He complained that the decision to shut down the internet will deny stakeholders, the important need to access data and sharing the same via the internet to make their own verification and informed analysis of results or challenge the results in courts of law, if need be. UPND demands an unequivocal pronouncement by ECZ, that there would be no shutdown of access to internet on the polling day.And in the alternative, for the Attorney General Likando Kalaluka to bar Mr Malipenga from issuing statements that infringe the jurisdiction of ECZ. Mr Imenda said that the party also demands that ECZ take proactive steps to procure and distribute battery charged or solar powered lighting for all the 12,152 polling stations across the country for use in tomorrow’s polls or allow the polling agents to carry portable lighting as back-up plan in case of power loss. He said ECZ should also ensure that all polling stations were manned by at least three military officers and three police officers with assurance that no results would be certified or accepted wherever it is reported that the polling agents were hounded out by an interested party or person.