Times of Zambia | Elected mayors; way to go

Published On June 11, 2016 » 2099 Views» By Administrator Times » Features

0 stars

ONE of the significant additions to the new Republican Constitution is the creation of a refined position of mayor.
From here on, the mayor of the city will be elected by the people with a mandate of an executive authority of the council.
The mayor will be expected to provide guidance over the policy and budgetary among other affairs of the local authority.
This is intended at providing the implementation of high level developmental projects to benefit people living in cities and districts.
In Lusaka, there are eight candidates aspiring for the mayoral seat and all have individually pledged to improve the living standards for people in the city if elected into office on August 11.
Among the eight are; Maureen Mwanawasa United Party for National Development (UPND), Alfred Banda of United National Independent Party (UNIP), Sire Muntanga of the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and Wilson Kalumba on the ruling party Patriotic Front (PF) ticket.
Others are Independents’ Kauta Mwale, Fishio Mwale, Elias Mpondela and Martin Maiseke.
Having mayors elected is one of the progressive results of the new Constitution and will significantly contribute to development in the country.
The mayor will be obliged to deliver on their promises with full knowledge that after five years, they will face the electorate who will judge them based on their performance in office.
In the case of Lusaka, the eight candidates were last week petitioned by residents to state clearly what plans they had for a city which after more than 100 years of existence, still needs facelift in some areas to fit the status of capital cities.
Seven of the candidates participated in a debate during the course of the week to outline their plans for the Capital and from those deliberations; this platform concluded that the election of mayors was the right way to go.
Previously, local authorities have been run by mayors first elected as councillors who stood as either independent or on a particular party ticket then re-elected by the Council Chamber to serve as mayor.
The shift aside from being first elected as councilor, now stipulates that the mayor will carry the authority to make decisions and ensure that the decisions are implemented by the subordinates in the local authority.
This will contribute to prompt social and economic service delivery across the towns and cities countrywide.
Every town and city in Zambia needs to receive a facelift to improve the outlook for the country as even after 51 years of independence, social services in some regions are still at the lowest.
Services such as street order where they is a clear definition of where people should trade in merchandise, public service transport should load people and indeed footpaths where pedestrians walk should be clearly defined.
In wishing all the contesting mayoral candidates the best; the message to the electorate remains for it top clearly define which individual would best serve the interests of the people.