Zambia has started receiving ballot papers for the August General Election from the United Arab Emirates’ city of Dubai, where the Southern African nation has been printing from.

Meanwhile preparations for the election on the ground is going but with a number of concerns ranging from withdrawal of validly nominated candidates, claims of unfair electoral practice to continued scenes of violence countrywide

About 8.7 million registered voters are expected to exercise their rights this August, 202 of the total 387 pallets have arrived in Lusaka while the rest will come on Friday.

Stakeholders, led by the Electoral Commission of Zambia Chairperson, Mwangala Zaloumis, have been at hand receiving the election instruments and Zaloumis expresses optimistic the country will hold a credible election.

“This process has not been short of incidences such as accusation, concerns and complaints among them suspicious withdrawals.”

The country has seen a number of validly nominated candidates, including a Presidential candidate, Xavier Chungu, who has been incarcerated before Campaigns began, withdraw and pull out of the race despite them appearing the ballot paper, a matter Gideon Musonda of Advocates for Democratic Governance Foundation says may cause invalid votes.

–ChannelAfrica–