ZAMBIA: Justice Peace and Caritas Department of AMECEA embarks on Election Monitoring
Booklet for Election Monitoring
As Zambia goes into polls to elect the President and members of the National Assembly on 11th August, 2016, AMECEA Justice Peace and Caritas Department is set to join Zambian Conference of Catholic Bishops ZCCB to undertake election monitoring exercise.
According to Mr. Antony Mbandi, Coordinator of AMECEA Justice Peace and Caritas Department, the exercise is an initiative of the department in collaboration with Zambian Catholic Justice and Peace Commission. He says that the objective of the exercise is knowledge exchange, capacity building and feedback to the Bishops Conference in Governance especially on the electioneering process in the region.
“So far we have confirmed representatives from Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya conferences whereby National Coordinator of Justice and Peace Commissions will travel to Zambia to partake in the exercise,” Mr. Mbandi said. From AMECEA, Secretariat, Mr. Mbandi together with Sr. Tabitha Wambui, ASN, who is the Programs Officer for Caritas will be leading the delegation from AMECEA Conferences.
He further explained that the development is an initiative of the AMECEA Justice Peace and Caritas department with approval of AMECEA Executive Board and the exercise will basically involve election monitoring and report submission to the conference.
In addition, he said that AMECEA Justice and Peace Department hopes to consistently build this process into the work of the department.
“The department would wish to achieve more into the future especially on building of democracy and good governance in the region but we are curtailed by resources and we hope we can in the near future find partners who are willing to work with the church regionally to improve the justice, peace and social economic development of our communities,” he said.
Meanwhile the department has published a booklet for guidelines for observers in election monitoring. The purpose of the booklet for standardization of the election monitoring exercise throughout the AMECEA Region.
Among the issues highlighted in the booklet includes terms and references for the observers which among other things explains the mandate and structure of the observers and the Code of conduct; the main duties of observers as well as the criteria for briefing which has been adopted from EU Election Monitoring Policy.
The Booklet is currently being distributed to all AMECEA Conferences and will be used for the first time in Zambia.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
