IT is worth joining the Christian Churches Monitoring Group in praising Government for facilitating, through the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), a successful and peaceful voter registration exercise in view of the August 11 general elections.
This is because of the great importance the voter registration plays in the electoral process vis-a-vis democracy.
Despite few pockets  of violence recorded in some areas, it is gratifying to note that there were no cases recorded of food distributions or farm inputs being distributed to influence the process.
It is also gratifying that people were not forced or influenced to attend a political meeting and the use of hate speech.
The process of registering voters is of supreme importance to the country and that is why the Government ensured that the process was conducted in a peaceful manner.
Actually, President Edgar Lungu is on record as having promised to push the Ministry of Finance and that of Home Affairs, to ensure that funds for the voter registration exercise, were released without any hurdles.
The President made this commitment in October, last year, and it has come to pass.
Mr Lungu promised that the exercise would be spread equitably across all regions; this is what has happened and it is worth acknowledging.
It is also important to acknowledge that Government through the ECZ waived fees for a police report for lost cards. Doing so simplifies the process to enable more people to register.
The exercise was smooth because Government provided citizens across the country, with access to information that enabled them to turn out in numbers.
In the same vein, we want to urge political parties to avoid hate speech and political violence as the country heads towards elections on August 11.
Political parties should abide by the rule of law in order to maintain peace and order.
The church should maintain the advisory role to Government and stakeholders unlike taking sides.
The politicians should desist from corrupting church leaders by donating huge sums of money for them to be endorsed during election time.
It is important that the Church remains neutral.
It is vital for political party leaders to discipline erring members who are perpetuating violence.
Now that the voter registration exercise is behind, political parties should now start sensitising their members on the importance of maintaining peace before, during, after the general election.
Peace is the biggest asset that Zambia has had for several years and it should be guarded jealously; moreover, peace is a catalyst to economic growth.
However, voter registration, is both the most central and most expensive aspect of the electoral process.
The task of registering voters and producing voters’ registers, often accounts more than the overall cost of administering elections.
Various factors affect these costs, including the type of system used to register the voters, the administrative capacity of the election management, and the country’s social, economic and demographic characteristics.
It is for this reason that the citizens are encouraged to take elections seriously, as tax payers money is involved in running the whole process. OPINION