It’s blackmail to link SCT to voting for HH – CSOs

By BARNABAS ZULU

A CONSORTIUM of civil society organisations has called for investigations into alleged text messages linking the continuation of the government’s Social Cash Transfer (SCT) programme to voting for President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND in the August 13 general elections.

In a joint statement issued yesterday, the organisations said they had noted with “grave concern” reports that members of the public, including registered Social Cash Transfer beneficiaries, had received SMS messages urging or suggesting they should vote for President Hichilema and the UPND to continue receiving their benefits.

The organisations, however, said they had not independently verified the origin of the messages and called on recipients to preserve the SMSs and submit them to relevant authorities for investigation.

“We have not ourselves been able to independently verify the source of these messages, and we call on affected beneficiaries and members of the public who have received such messages to preserve copies and forward them to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), and our organisations, so that the matter can be properly investigated,” the organisations said.

The statement said if the reports were confirmed, the conduct would amount to “a serious abuse of incumbency and government position” intended to favour the ruling party.

“If confirmed, this conduct amounts to a serious abuse of the incumbency and government position to favour the ruling party in the forthcoming general election, and we condemn it in the strongest terms,” the organisations stated.

They said the Social Cash Transfer programme was a statutory social protection scheme funded by taxpayers and administered by the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services for vulnerable households, including elderly persons and people living with disabilities.

“The Social Cash Transfer programme is a statutory social protection entitlement administered by the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services using public funds for the benefit of the elderly, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable households. It is not, and must never be treated as, the property or campaign resource of any political party or candidate,” the statement said.

The organisations argued that any attempt to condition welfare benefits on voting choices would amount to coercion and undermine the integrity of the electoral process.

“Conditioning, or appearing to condition, the continuation of a social protection entitlement on how a beneficiary casts their vote is coercive. It exploits the economic vulnerability of some of the poorest citizens in the country and converts a constitutionally and statutorily protected welfare programme into an instrument of electoral inducement,” they said.

They also raised concerns that if beneficiary contact details had been obtained from government databases for campaign purposes, such conduct could violate the constitutional requirement for impartial use of public resources.

The organisations said the reported conduct could raise legal concerns under the Electoral Process Act No. 35 of 2016, particularly Section 83 on undue influence, which prohibits threatening or disadvantaging a person to induce them to vote for a particular candidate or political party.

They further cited Sections 3(d) and 29 of the Act, which require public officers and public institutions to treat all candidates equally and prohibit granting special privileges to political parties.

The organisations said the reported use of beneficiary contact details could potentially contravene the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 and the Anti-Corruption Act if public office or state resources were found to have been misused.