Ascension to power through an election is presumed to legitimise those in government. Zambia in the last months has experienced political violence to those who express different views than their own. While elections are a key element of democratic processes in the providing of free and fair elections, electoral violence poses a big threat to the nation. Political violence defined by (Paalo 2017) is the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation or influenced by political matters, it encompasses but not limited to violence against civilians or political rivals as well as violent demonstrations.
Electoral politics encompasses campaigns, rallies and meetings with the purpose of political parties to inform and persuade the soon to be voters to vote for them. If the aim for political parties is to win free and fairly, then why the electoral violence? Electoral violence is charged by political thespians to tenaciously effect the course and consequence of elections and it involves the forcible acts against the citizens, private and state-owned properties.
Electoral violence in Zambia is mostly on the lower strata of the Zambian polity where we find youth cadres that have given themselves the mandate to coercively campaign for the political party they are affiliated to and also instill fear in those who support other political parties than them. The concept of political cadres is not new in the Zambian political grounds. In 1964, after Zambia got its independence, UNIP had youth leagues who were in charge of oppressing women and men without UNIP cards and denied them entry to shops, public transport (Phiri,2001). We still see this similar pattern of political cadres oppressing other citizens of Zambia.
If the state that is responsible for providing every citizen security allows these cadres to roam freely destroying property and disrupting the universal rights of the citizens, then the state is therefore legally responsible to take action, investigate and punish those that are violating the human rights of others.
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), article 21 states:
1. everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives;
And article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any media of his choice.
If the rights stated above are not put into consideration and electoral violence is left to prevail, it will instill fear in the hearts of the voters and one of the two may end up happening; voters may end up voting for the wrong party in the hopes of preserving their lives and/or voters may not vote altogether causing voter apathy.
Elections are known as a form of democracy and democracy is generally defined as the rule of the people by the people for the people, meaning people choose who they give power to rule them and the people have the right to change government too through elections which are suppose to be free and fair.
UDHR article 21(3) states that; the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Electoral violence causes a threat on democracy and human rights, for example, on 22 December 2020, police fatally shot two unarmed people gathering at the side of the opposition supporters a day before the government had ordered the police to use any means necessary to maintain law and order during the campaigns.
With the general elections coming, the British High commissioner to Zambia Nicholas Wolley has contributed K16 million to the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) to support the preparation of the elections. Other than that, Zambia has deployed the Zambian Police and army to curb violence before, during and after elections and also to make sure the Electoral Commission would conduct the elections without interference.
Political parties should come to a realisation that electoral violence destroys the very basis of what they want to fight for. People during elections constantly leave in fear for their lives, rights and their property.
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