When citizens of Zambia go to choose their leaders during September’s elections, they can be sure that the polls will be free of malpractices.

Bantu Watch, a new portal launched on Saturday, will monitor the whole electoral process in Zambia. This initiative will let common citizens keep a tab on the status of the elections.

Now, if voters notice any wrong doings during the elections, they can log on to the Bantu Watch website and report about the incident.

Once the report goes live, the administrators on the website will verify the claims and then forward the complaint to the concerned authorities. A phone helpline number has also been started to support the initiative.

The elections, which start on 20th September, 2011 will be a controversial one as opposition parties have accussed President Rupiah Banda’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) of blackmail. Fears of riots and skirmishes during the elections have been high.

The portal is jointly run by Southern African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) and Zambia Civil Society.

Lee Habasonda from  SACCORD said,

“It is a great electoral malpractice preventive mechanism as people can report, in real time, offences such as intimidation, hate speech, vote buying, polling clerk bias, voting misinformation and so on. Action can be taken right away”

He also went on to say that a dedicated team for the website has been formed. Trained professionals will handle the website to verify the claims of the users. If the initiative works out, it will be integrated in future elections as well.

The Zambian public has shown a lot of favorable response to the website. Even before the election, many users have been putting up posts about election malpractices going on in their vicinity.

Social media has been making its way in many sectors and now, it has finally managed to make a successful foray into politics as well.