Tue, 20 Dec 2016 10:27:25 +0000 By Kalobwe Bwalya THE Commission of Inquiry on voting patterns and electoral violence officially started its public hearing in in Lusaka yesterday with the first petitioner recommending the need to give powers to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to ban political parties whose members engage in violence from participating in elections. And former Minister of Transport and Communication in the MMD government William Harrington has claimed that lack of professionalism in the Zambia Police Service was a major contributor to political violence. In his submission, Gershom Musonda, 52, representing the Zambian Editor’s Network, submitted that severe punitive measures should be meted out against perpetrators of violence. He proposed that banning of political parties whose members engaged in violence would help curb electoral violence. “When ECZ suspended campaigns in Lusaka and Namwala districts owing to rampant political violence in the August 11 general elections, the affected districts became quiet […]
