Africa-Press – Zambia. We are grateful that stakeholders such as Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) have pointed to UPND’s vote buying during the Kawambwa by election.
The stance taken by TIZ and other stakeholders who have voiced their concerns is welcome and a clear vindication of what we have been talking about. We have always insisted that the by-elections that are being held by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) are nothing but a fraud, a waste of money and time.
We have been participating in these by-elections since 2021 and experiencing the same violent, vote buying, and fraudulent conduct by the UPND, which the ECZ and police don’t seem to be able to do anything meaningful about.
We have been victims of UPND violence in most of these by-elections, but we, the victims, have ended up being arrested and detained by police but never prosecuted. We have reported many incidents of UPND violence against us to police but not a single arrest or prosecution to date. We have been attacked by UPND cadres in front of police officers and even in a police post, but no arrests and prosecutions. The police can’t act against UPND violence. But they are very quick to arrest us when we try to defend ourselves.
The UPND leaders (including Cabinet ministers and District Commissioners), and cadres do as they please. They have no respect for ECZ campaign timetables. They go where they want, even if it is not their day to be there. Complaints are made to ECZ, but nothing changes. They take over government buildings and set up their campaign camps there with impunity. They use government motor vehicles in their campaigns. They simply remove the registration plates.
District Commissioners, permanent secretaries and presidential aides, who are civil servants, are always part of their campaign teams, using government motor vehicles, often with registration plates removed.
Even the buying of votes is seen as something normal by the UPND. The Minister of Sports, Mr Elvis Nkandu does it openly, he doesn’t even hide, and he has earned himself the name of ba Tantameni.
The truth is, there is a total collapse of the electoral system. It’s a total fraud- they are not free, fair, and peaceful, and don’t reflect the will of the people. And if things are not corrected now, we are headed for a disastrous general elections in 2026.
It is clear that the UPND are bad students of history, they haven’t learned something from past governments, who used to ‘win’ almost all the by-elections they engineered but lost all in the general elections!
But this impunity, criminality and abuse of power, coupled with excitement (ukusamwa) we are seeing in the UPND leadership especially Cabinet ministers and cadres will backfire very badly.
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