The independence of the electoral commission of Zambia and the appointment of the election date by the President

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Date
2013-04-15
Authors
Muchangani, Kanyanga
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Abstract
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) is a constitutionally established body pursuant to Article 76(1) of the constitution with the mandate to conduct presidential and parliamentary elections in the Republic of Zambia. The ECZ is primarily consists of five full time commissioners and the chairperson being one of them. They are all together appointed by the president.There has been a lot of concern leveled against the ECZ since 1996 specifically on the ground of being in favour of the party in power. However, the concerns have to various reasons. The ECZ is believed not to be independent and autonomous as per demands of the constitution. One of the major issues is the interference on ECZ by the executive arm of the government through many ways. One of the criticisms has been the constitufionality of section 25(1) of the Electoral Act, funding of the ECZ and the appointment of the members of the ECZ by the president when he himself is a political player. These are the grounds upon which stakeholders have argued that the ECZ is not free to carry out its mandate as per constitution established.This research evaluates the legal framework of the law governing the ECZ with the view to ascertain and thereafter propose a proper governing structure by having in place good legal framework concerning elections in Zambia. Mainly, the objective of this essay, is to carry out an overview of the legal framework that governs the ECZ and carry out a comparative study of other few countries. The purpose of this study is to critically establish the constitutionality of the subsidiary law governing the elections in Zambia and also look at laws whether or not they are adequate enough to deal with the independent delivery of services by E C Z and if not this study
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Elections--Law and Legislation,Zambia , Electoral Commision
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