CORD warns poll agency over electoral reforms

Coalitions for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) has said it would fight off attempts to water down electoral reforms.

The Standard has established that CORD wrote a protest letter to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on the status of the election laws amendments, development of Information Technology regulations, audit of the register of voters and procurement of key electoral infrastructure.

"The coalition warns that we will not hesitate to deploy both political and extra-political as well as legal and extra-legal measures to stamp out this impunity," reads the letter in part.

According to the letter dated November 3 to IEBC Secretary Ezra Chiloba and seen by The Standard, CORD argued that the eligibility criteria the commission required of the firms to carry out the audit falls below the statutory objective.

"It is hell-bent on obscuring and contaminating the audit of the register of voters. The eligibility set out therein is so minute that it is manifestly clear that you are pursuing a self-serving audit to conceal the rot that is the register of voters as demonstrated in 2013," reads the letter.

In particular CORD was irked by the management brief by Mr Chiloba that said that "from a big picture perspective, the commission may open up the audit to include the post-2013 registered voters although not officially included in the register of voters".

Head of CORD Secretariat Norman Magaya, in his letter, charged that Chiloba's brief statement confirms their long-held view that the commission has no singular roll in the name of the 'Register of Voters' as contemplated in law.

CORD also protested against procurement of key electoral infrastructure for the 2017 polls, saying that all key procurement require policy guidance from the commissioners.

CORD argued that as it is now, IEBC has no commissioners after the resignation of the nine and any procurement of any electoral infrastructure is laden with illegalities.