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Election civic educators pay for chieftaincy wrangles

The National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust has expressed fears that the unrelenting chieftaincy wrangles in Neno district may negatively impact on its civic and voter education programmes.
Neno is one of the districts currently grappling with an ever increasing number of chieftaincy disputes most of which border on insubordination [to Traditional Authorities (T/As) ] and illegal dismissals of group village heads (GVHs) by the T/As.
Nice district civic education officer Alinanuswe Nthakomwa told a team of journalists on Sunday that his organisation is facing serious challenges to mobilise eligible voters to attend their civic and voter education (CVE) rallies in areas where chiefs have differences.
Nthakomwa explained that there is among subjects where traditional leaders do not see eye-to-eye such that voters cannot attend rallies in different villages for fear of being perceived as enemies of their chiefs.
“The situation is very tense here. As I’m talking to you, Nice has been forced to adopt one public rally one village strategy to ensure every eligible voter is covered,” he said, adding that his office has since adjusted upwards budgets for CVE programmes.
Said Nthakomwa: “These differences are costing us a lot. We just pray that funds won’t deplete before time because that would deny Neno voters crucial information on elections.”
He cited the area of Traditional Authority Chekucheku as the worst hit by the disputes.
But a counsellor of Group Village Head (GVH) Donda in T/A Chekucheku, Kenala Chikoti, observed that government was at fault for paying a deaf ear to their calls to resolve the wrangles in time.
“I can see these differences impacting on elections as well because some politician may choose to take advantage of these differences to advance his agenda. Therefore, I urge relevant authorities to come and resolve these disputes before the official campaign period,” implored Chikoti.

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