Citizens’ rights must be protected

THE General Election 2022 has again brought into the limelight citizens’ constitutional rights and the governance of these rights.
Constitutional rights need to be governed.
Constitutional rights should not be a license to criminals seeking sanctuary from facing the consequences of their crimes.
When constitutional rights are not governed, it is open to being abused.
All the mayhem in the GE22 arose as a result of constitutional rights being granted without qualifications.
In the GE22, candidates’ rights to run for a public office should have been governed by a set of qualification requirements.
A candidate should have an education level of at least a first degree.
At that level, the candidate will have the intelligence level that would enable the candidate to exercise his right to seek public office within the ambient of the election laws.
There should be laws that bar any candidate from future elections or even disqualification if elected when a candidate or his supporters are engaged in illegal practices in the general election.
There should be no grey areas in the policing of the law.
There should be no legal avenues for appeals in the policing of the law.
The common roll used gives citizens the right to vote.
That right is a qualified right.
Minors (10-12 years old) have been photographed voting in the GE22.
Do they have that right?
People are in tears when their right to vote is taken away by a shoddily compiled common roll.
The general election must be declared failed in Enga and other electorates. What other evidence does the Electoral Commissioner want?
There should be no hesitation in declaring failed election because it is an effective way of ensuring there is no repeat of such blatant disregard for the election laws by the candidates “exercising their democratic rights”.
I have goosebumps thinking of the criminal elements who will be elected to Parliament in the GE22 because of the lack of proper governance of Constitutional Rights of candidates.

Pole Hali
Tokarara, NCD