ZAMBIA Correctional Service ( ZCS) says inmates will not verify their details through the electronic inspection of the provisional voter register because they don’t have phones.

In an interview, ZCS Commissioner General Dr Chisela Chileshe said the inmates would participate in the physical inspections instead which are scheduled to take place from March 29 to April 2, 2021.

“I am sure they will do physical verification. Because of the non- availability of phones, if we had given them phones, they would have done the same. The most likely is that they will do physical verification. I am sure modalities will be found to ensure that they verify their records,” Dr Chileshe said

And Dr Chileshe said the correctional service had submitted that there should be no physical campaigns in correctional facilities.

“The campaign modalities are almost done through their guidelines but remember, the amendments for the Electoral Commission of Zambia process has not yet come out so we will wait for it to come out. But it looks fair for everyone from the preliminary submissions that we have done. Our submission was that the campaigns should go on but not physical campaigns for everyone,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Chileshe said he was confident that the correctional facilities in Chipata Central would surpass production of 5,000 bags of maize.

“I am inspecting a farm at Chipata Central, it is doing very well. And it looks like they will surpass what they produced last season. Chipata Central produced 5,000 bags so they were doing 80 by 50kg bags per hectare so now if the crops does better, it means they will go beyond 5,000 bags just for Chipata because I haven’t seen other stations yet. I am just about to reach the farm at Chadiza,” said Dr Chileshe.

Last week, ECZ chief electoral officer Patrick Nshindano said the electronic inspection of the provisional register of voters would commence on Sunday February 7, 2021 and would run up to May 7, 2021.

“The Commission is delighted to announce that electronic inspection of the provision register of voters will commence on Sunday 7th February 2021 and will run up to 7th May 2021. The electronic based inspection of the provisional register of voters will involve the use of a website platform and phone USSD code. In our quest to be innovative and provide convenience for the registered voters, we have devised electronic means of verification or voter details on the provisional register especially now that the country has not been spared by the COVID-19 pandemic. This phase of the inspection will be available on two platforms as follows; one will be expected to dial the USSD code that is *214# available on all networks that is Airtel, MTN and Zamtel,” said Nshindano.

“Once the registered voter dials that code, it will prompt them on what actions they need to take such as verifying your details and other services available on the platform. Some of the benefits that come with using this platform include the following, it is free for anyone who registered as a voter to use this and it is highly interactive so there is no cost to it. There is no need for internet connection, you don’t require data bundles to be able to do this. It is also easily customized to suit the need for our people. The internet based one which is ECZ online platform is available at the following Ovr.elections.o.zm. So one can go to that on the web platform for those with access to the internet. This is a build up from the online pre-voter registration exercise which most of you have interacted with and is it meant to provide yet another convenient way for verification.”