Immediate past Attorney General Musa Mwenye SC says Zambia should learn from Ghana where all participating presidential candidates in an election are entitled to State security and protection.

And Mwenye who is also former Solicitor General under Micheal Sata’s government says Zambia can avoid the perpetuity of disputed elections if there is opposition representation at all levels of of the electoral management process.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Secretariat has appointed Mwenye and chairperson of the Commonwealth Elections Observer Mission to Namibia.

Mwenye, who has previously represented the Commonwealth at various general elections in Africa said, in an interview, that he was honoured to be appointed head of mission to Namibia and used the opportunity to share lessons that Zambia could learn from how other countries manage elections.

“I am privileged to have been asked to lead the Common Observation Group to the Namibian Presidential and National Assembly elections due to be held on the 27th November 2019,” Mwenye said.

“It is indeed the first time I will be chairing an observer group although I acted as Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group to the recently held Mozambican elections in the absence of Honourable Musyoka former Vice President of Kenya who was substantive chair. Whenever a Zambian is appointed to undertake any international assignment we fly our national flag and market our country. Out there we are Zambians first, before anything else.”

Asked to state, from his experience in election monitoring, what electoral mechanisms Zambia could adopt in order to navigate away from the perpetuity of disputed polls, Mwenye suggested provision of state security to all candidates and diversity of the media.

“Each country offers lessons we can learn from. In Ghana for example, all candidates including the opposition are entitled to State security and the level of media diversity and freedom is a lesson we can learn. Nigerian also exhibits very high levels of media diversity and freedom and their capacity to run an election with over 80 million registered voters and if I recall correctly close to 90 candidates is also admirable. In Mozambique there is representation of the opposition at all levels of the Electoral management body right up to the polling station. These are all lessons we can draw from to better run our elections,” stated Mwenye.