On Friday, IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba reminded all political parties that are expected to hold primaries, through a letter, to operate within the law regarding polls. [Photo/Courtesy of IEBC]
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is among 10 political parties that risk being blocked from participating in the August 8 general election over failure to submit lists of nominations to IEBC. The electoral commission expects to receive the lists before the end of Monday (April 10), saying that the parties had not submitted the documents, whose deadline was on April 5. On Friday, IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba reminded all political parties that are expected to hold primaries, through a letter, to operate within the law regarding polls. “Reference is made to our letter to political parties REF:IEBC/VREP/2/14(37) dated March 24, 2017 outlining modalities of submitting party lists on aspirants who will be participating in parties primaries on or before April 5, 2017,” The Nation quotes Chiloba as saying in the letter. The IEBC boss added that many parties had not complied with the requirement of submitting the lists in designated electronic format.“Submission should be done immediately but not later than April 10, 2017,” Chiloba added in the letter.Reacting to the letter, Judy Pareno, ODM’s chairperson of the national elections board, asked party members not to panic, saying that the party had complied with IEBC’s March 30 requirements. “We are in compliance and we did so on time. IEBC asked us to send soft copy and we have done that,” Paremo said, as per a report in The Nation.