WITH Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) setting nomination fees for presidential candidates at a hefty K95,000, leaders of small opposition parties like Alex Mulyokela who has been fundraising using a piggy bank for nomination fees are unlikely to book a slot on the ballot paper unless the Constitutional Court intervenes.
Little-known Radical Revolutionary Party (RRP) whose President in the last General election contested at parliamentary level in Munali Constituency has petitioned the Constitutional Court to intervene in the exorbitant nomination fees for the 2021 Polls charged by the Electoral Commission of Zambia so that he, and his kind can also afford to rub shoulders on a ballot paper with heavyweights like Edgar Lungu and Hakainde Hichilema, the two frontrunners in the impending polls.
Vincent Chaile, a 2012/2013 UNZASU President who now leads RRP has cried to the court that the K95,000 nomination fee required by ECZ saying it was outrageous and prohibitive to quality candidates who do not have the now proverbial ‘kasaka ka ndalama’ like ruling PF party officials.
In his plea to the court, Chaile averred that ECZ had also gone against the spirit of dialogue and consensus as previous talks between political parties and ECZ had ended on a note of lower fees but ECZ instead opted for draconian fees.
Meanwhile, ECZ has pegged Presidential nomination fees at K95,000, K75,000 for male and female presidential candidates respectively.
Female parliarmentary candidates will pay K13,500 while men will have to give ECZ K15,000.
