Zambia’s Electoral Commission partners with telecoms to enable voters verification
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has partnered MTN Zambia, Airtel Zambia and the Zambia Telecommunications Company to enable voters to verify their registration status through short messaging system (SMS) facility.
The elections body, wants voters to use the text messaging system to verify their registration status.
Judge Essau Chuulu, the ECZ Chairperson confirmed that as of May this year all voters will be able to use the verification service and added that users have to comply with the law and complete the process within seven days.
However, the country’s ICT regulator, Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has said it is not part of the agreement with industry stakeholders questioning the regulator’s involvement in the August 2016 general elections.
Ngabo Nankonde, the ZICTA Public Relations Manager said the Authority has nothing to do with the development or management of any mechanism for transmission of election results and added that mobile phone service providers are the custodians of their respective subscriber databases and ZICTA does not own any communication network platform for voice and SMS.
She also said that the Authority has no role to play in the forthcoming elections, apart from ensuring quality of service for both mobile and data infrastructure.
