Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Social scientist Innocent Kolala is hopeful that Zambia will soon undertake electoral reforms to curtail the holding of by-elections which have proved to be time consuming and costly.
During his address to the nation on morals and principals of national values, president Hakainde Hichilema said his government is working towards ensuring ways that will help curb unnecessary holding of by-elections further stating that he would continue to lobby parliament against costly and timely consuming by elections.
Speaking to Q news, Mr. Kolala recommends that laws that govern the holding of by-elections be revised to provide that the person who came second in an election takes over in case of eventualities that would lead to a by-election.
Mr. Kolala has also recommended that section 97 of the electoral process act number 35 of 2016 which directs the judges to only nullify a seat based on the widespread of corruption or any electoral malpractice be amended, stating that in its current form only petitioned seats of widespread corruption or any electoral malpractice can be nullified while those with sporadic cases might not be nullified.
He is therefore confident that amending the laws on by-elections as mentioned will help curb electoral Mal-practices among political parties and their candidates at various levels for fear of being replaced by those that come second in case of nullification’s.