{"id":5482,"date":"2021-09-03T19:18:46","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T19:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading"},"modified":"2021-09-03T19:29:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T19:29:43","slug":"decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading","title":{"rendered":"Decision by UPND to Petition All Parliamentary Seats Held by the PF Makes Sad Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zambia<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The National Democratic Congress (NDC) faction has said that it is deeply saddened with the United Party for National Development (UPND)\u2019s decision to petition all parliamentary seats held by the Patriotic Front.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the media, NDC deputy national spokesperson Zuwa Sinkamba said this was never expected from the UPND. Mr. Sinkamba said the UPND should rescind their decision, focus on economic recovery and withdraw all the petitions. He said the election petitions are going to be a drain on the resources and the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs National Democratic Congress, NDC, we would like to bring to your attention that the UPND, through their Secretary-General, have petitioned quite a number of seats won by PF. Initially, they were about 37, however, it now seems they are going to petition all lost seats,\u201d Mr. Sinkamba said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very sad day for this country because, they are taking the same wrong path the PF government took through their former SG Wynter Kabimba, where they started forcing by-elections by making sitting MPs resign so that they can have majority number in Parliament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The UPND\u2019s sponsored high court petitions go against their plans to stabilize and recover the economy and reduce the budget deficit. \u201cWhen you look at it critically; one by-election costs about K 5 million when multiplied by all the petitions being done in the High Court, the amount is about K 360 million, and most of the cases are actually frivolous,\u201d Mr. Sinkamba said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in the NDC suggest that they build consensus with the opposition and independent MPs and amend the constitution in a way that is acceptable to every Zambian. By the time the UPND will realize that they have wasted time through court petitions, it will be two years and they will not have time to amend the Constitution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in support of the petitions, Colonel Panji Kaunda has said that the Electoral Commission of Zambia needs to be restructured in light of many petitions being filed in court.About 54 parliamentary seats countrywide have been petitioned by losing candidates in the August 12 general elections.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Col Panji said the increase in the number of petitions of the just-ended election entails that there was something wrong with the Electoral Commission of Zambia\u2019s monitoring system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that ECZ is going to be reconditioned as they have done to the police. I think they can do something to the ECZ. We need people who are professional, those that are not professional must go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething went wrong, that\u2019s for sure! If the way the elections were conducted is found to have been corrupt, then there is something wrong with the ECZ. They didn\u2019t scrutinise or they didn\u2019t monitor how the elections are supposed to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, Vubwi, a lot of Malawians and Mozambicans came to vote. Literally, we saw vehicles with Malawian number plates coming to vote in Vubwi Constituency. I saw vehicles with my own eyes bringing in Malawians to vote at my polling station.\u201d Col Panji said people have the right to petition the elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou remember I complained at a certain time that there are too many voters in Vubwi who were registered. Obviously, some numbers might have come from across the borders,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing forward, I think that ECZ must tighten their rules on elections and monitoring of elections properly because if this was done, there wouldn\u2019t be so many people wanting to go to court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) faction has said that it is deeply saddened with the United Party for National Development (UPND)\u2019s decision to petition all parliamentary seats held by the Patriotic Front. In a statement to the media, NDC deputy national spokesperson Zuwa Sinkamba said this was never expected from the UPND. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25,8,10,16],"tags":[234,235,1263,233,2315],"class_list":["post-5482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-featured","category-homepage-english","category-parties","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-national-democratic-congress","tag-zambia","tag-zuwa-sinkamba"],"yoast_head":"\nDecision by UPND to Petition All Parliamentary Seats Held by the PF Makes Sad Reading - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Democratic Congress (NDC) faction has said that it is deeply saddened with the United Party for National De ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decision by UPND to Petition All Parliamentary Seats Held by the PF Makes Sad Reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Democratic Congress (NDC) faction has said that it is deeply saddened with the United Party for National De ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-03T19:18:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-03T19:29:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/09\/img-6132777ee80e1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"478\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Decision by UPND to Petition All Parliamentary Seats Held by the PF Makes Sad Reading\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-03T19:18:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-03T19:29:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading\"},\"wordCount\":607,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/09\/img-6132777ee80e1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"National Democratic Congress\",\"Zambia\",\"Zuwa Sinkamba\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Featured\",\"homepage-english\",\"parties\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/decision-by-upnd-to-petition-all-parliamentary-seats-held-by-the-pf-makes-sad-reading\",\"name\":\"Decision by UPND to Petition All Parliamentary Seats Held by the PF Makes Sad Reading - 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