Africa-Press – Zambia. 54 Parliamentary Seats have been petitioned so far. He re is an estimated cost of one by-election.
A by election on average costs K 5,000,000 per seat. Assuming the petitioners win half even those seats that means K150,000,000. Lets translate that in real money.
At the current price of fertilizer @ K 800 thats 187,500 bags you can give to small farmers for free. If you are giving the elderly social cash tranfer that’s @ K500 thats 250,000 people who can benefit. If you want to give marketeers a grant of K 1000 thats 150,000 people you can help kick start a vegetable business.
If as the UPND promised free education and its about K 3000 per year per student in a government school 50,000 students can have free education this year, if you want to help UNZA students who are in the last year of their degree course but come from vulnerable families and the average cost is K 35,000 you are ensuring 4, 285 can have their course paid. So if its true that the plan to petition results is a Government project, then it’s a true case of highly misplaced priorities.
