By CHILA NAMAIKO –
EXAMINATIONS Council of Zambia (ECZ) director Michael Chilala has said cases of forged Grade 12 School certificates the institution is recording, cannot be said to be for those aspiring for political office alone.
Dr Chilala clarified that although it was true that ECZ had identified some forged certificates, the institution could not tell whether the documents belong to aspiring candidates for political office or not, because the people who sought verification of certificates were not required to declare the purpose of verifying them.
He said the institution was serving whoever visited the service centre for purposes of verifying their certificates.
“The cases of forged Grade 12 certificates that we have been recording are from members of the public. These cases are not stated whether they belong to people aspiring for political office or not because the verification process is not closed to ordinary members of the public and hence it would not be correct to align the forged documents to aspiring candidates,” he said.
Dr Chilala explained that the cases of forgery that had been recorded were being reported to police.
Once such a case of forgery was taken to the courts of law, Dr Chilala said, the institution would only be called as a witness.
Meanwhile, Dr Chilala clarified that ECZ did not determine people who should stand on which political party following the verification exercise of the Grade 12 certificates.
He said the institution was openly engaged by the Electoral Commission of Zambia to help in the verification of the certificates since it was mandated by law to issue such documents.
This follows, among other key requirements by the Electoral Commission of Zambia, that aspiring candidates for the August 11 general elections must have a full grade 12 certificate inclusive of English.