By NAKUBIANA SHABONGO –
GOVERNMENT has raised the required K344 million in readiness for next Tuesday’s Presidential election, Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba has said.

. Yamba

Mr Yamba said Government would release K110 balance as the last allocation from the initial K344 million Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) budget before the end of this week.
“We have met the election budget and we are releasing the money before the end of this week to ECZ, this will enable a smooth election.  We had a pending K110million after we had released the K234, the latest release of money will meet the agreed ECZ budget of K344 million,” he said.
Mr Yamba said in an interview that Government was adequately prepared to hold the fourth coming election.
He said that the funds that the Ministry was providing to ECZ this week would be used for transport and allowances, among other logistics.
He said that the actual funding of the presidential election was generated through the country’s domestic resources.
He said that Government was very grateful for the technical and financial assistance it had received from donors, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and different countries that would support
different activities.
“We also have support coming from other countries and donors which will go towards other things such as monitoring of elections,” he said.
Mr Yamba said part of the donor and NGO support was meant for the civil society and Central Statistical Office that would support some activities during the election.