Friday, March 29, 2024

Over K200 million spent to hold 18 by election since 2011

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VOTERS displaying their identities while on voting queue during Solwezi Central by-elections
VOTERS displaying their identities while on voting queue during
Solwezi Central by-elections

Government has revealed that it has spent over K 200 million to organise 11 Parliamentary and Local Government by elections since October 2011.

Deputy Minister in the Vice President’s Office Stephen Kampyongo disclosed this when he answered a question in Parliament Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Kampyongo stated that a total of K 211,549,317 was spent on all parliamentary and ward by elections from October 2011 until December 2014.

He also revealed that nine by elections were occasioned by nullification of election results by the courts of law and the other nine were as a result of defections.

Mr Kampyongo further disclosed that the Electoral Commission of Zambia organised 183 ward by elections over the same period.

He also revealed that the treasury had allocated K4million for holding by elections annually since 2011 except in 2016 when the allocation went up to K6 million.

Mr Kampyongo defended the expenditure on by election stating that it is a constitutional requirement for the Electoral Commission of Zambia to organise by election whenever a vacancy occurs at Parliamentary or local government level.

44 COMMENTS

  1. Change the law you broke b@st@rds! Why do you always waste resources in the name of legislation!? I don’t understand this.

    • Kampyongo! a name which sounds like nose blowing action! tell the truth for once! K200million was not spent on by elections!! the truth is that K200million was spent on PF induced elections

    • Govt made simple by PF. Toyata Zambia has run out of new VX and GX as all they had in stock as been ordered by GRZ for newly appointed office bearers. The cars cost K1 500 000 each…do the math and add to that the cost of useless by-elections and think of the poor people in compounds who today don’t have running water, no food…..

    • That is 200 billion Kwacha in old money just on those tuma elections…Time to change the law and stop this wasting of money. No Zambian in their right mind would condone such reckless behavior.

    • yaba! @Nostradamus is also not picking up his phone,,,,Nostra,,,, malilio ku ba Nsanda, you will find me ku Esther Phiri the widow, if you are coming

    • Add the presidential bye election and, well, the amount is certainly huge for our economy.
      Zambia has its fair share of world records; the most annulled parliamentary elections, the most conducted parliamentary bye elections in short period of three years and the most presidents who have not finished their terms in office due to death.

    • Itis sad that PF finds it easy to justify the unjustifiable issues. Is not constitutional to pay for the services government receives from suppliers? It seems under Panga Family money is only found for political issues and none is found for economic and social service delivery. PF you are surviving due to poor understanding of issues by the majority of voters. This explains why PF finds it easy not to pay farmers as they think it is not constitution to pay farmers.

    • The 200 million is approximately $25 million.Now add the money spent on acquiring vehicles new office bearers,cost of treating Sata,Nsanda and Lungu then the trip to Namibia by Lungu accompanied by KK and Banda.
      NOW CONVINCE ME WHETHER WE ARE SERIOUS IN ZAMBIA

  2. The colonial masters duped us about this democracy ,they knew we would not develop .That money could have gone to revamp UTH . This democracy is too expensive ,we can do away with it, it has brought tribalism and so much hate.

    People celebrate when an opposition member is sick or dies, what a load of rubbish this democracy.

    • @Robin please do not blame the colonial masters or democracy for our own useless docile incompetence. Yes having elections is expensive but those tuma by elections where extremely unnecessary. That money would have been used to create another UTH or revamp the current institutions. Its just lack of planning and uselessness on the part of Zambians that has led to this nonsense. I put to you that Roy Welensky the former governor would probably have done a much better job than any of the governments we have had pa zed combined.

    • In my opinion,a bye-election should be held only where an incumbent MP or councilor has passed on.That 200 shani shani uko could have gone a long way in alleviating the poverty levels in this country.

    • @Robin…….

      Dictatorship is what you are advocating. Twakana. It is not rocket science to avoid by-elections. You just pass progressive laws i.e. have running mates to President so that the VP can continue when a president dies and provide for replacement in parliamentary seats vacated by MPs who defect to other parties. I can assure you that very few MPs if any, would defect until after serving for 5 years. Robin, allow yourself the pleasure of critical thinking and analysis of issues. If you are not able, ask others. There is a better way than creating Amins, Dos Santos’s, Mugabes, Mobutus etc. NO SIR. Please God, protect us from such deadly ideas. The Western world is prospering because of democracy.

  3. K200 million against the allocated K4 million? This just shows how misplaced our priorities are. How many of the needy areas would have been attended to if the extra K196 million was put to good use? How many deserving students would have accessed bursary? How many patients would have been saved from dying if the right equipment was bought? how many etcetera things would have been accomplished with that money? my heart foot!

  4. That’s why I never liked Sata’s style of leadership. Some scumbags will say poke their noses are by advising never to say bad things about the dead.

    What crap!!!!!
    Utter Nonsense!!!

    The man has left the economy in total mess, the economy is in shambles. If we didn’t have those unnecessary 9 defections, we could have saved K100m which could have gone towards poverty alleviation programs, upgrading UTH, provision of bursaries to needy students, the list goes on. But because of his selfishness, Sata has left us in this quandary and as a country it will take years to recover. Credit to him, all the progress made by one Levy Mwanawasa reversed in a less than 3 years.
    Man of Action!
    Man of Experience!

    • It was not Sata’s fault yu embecile, yu can’t even think clearly yu are just obsessed with Sata yu are really sick. For yo information, Sata is appreciated by many for what he did for this Country. Only haters like yu don’t but it does not matter coz tamutasha no matter what is done for yu you are just full of hate. That’s why come 2016 it the nega nega formula

    • @Wan – can you remind us what Satan did for Zambia? National debts of over $10billion, most of them are undocumented (e.g. $600m VAT not refunded to mines, $250m fuel overdraft from PTA bank not serviced, hundreds of millions of dollars advanced on roads by Chinese contractors). The Kwacha is plummeting towards K10 to the USD by this year end. Mines will close because of his useless tax plans. Youths are unemployed and being arrested for demanding jobs. No Constitution despite paying billions for a draft. No results from commissions etc etc. Any Zambian who admired and loved Satan is a moron and a PFool.

    • It was not Sata’s fault, you can’t even think clearly

      Look who is talking; hahaha, whose fault is it then?
      Since you seem to be the one who “thinks clearly” why have you conveniently chosen not to mention the culprit in this whole thing?
      Who influenced Masumba to cross join PF?
      Who influenced Taima to resign from MMD?
      Who influenced Feira MP, Ngoma to resign from MMD?
      Who influenced the Msanzala MP (Independent) to cross over to PF?
      Who dangled the carrot to Rev Sikwela MP for Livingstone to ditch UPND and resign his as MP?
      These defections I have listed were unnecessary and were only be motivated by greed of your mentor Sata. I am not talking about the other seats due to deaths or court nullifications. What good did Sata bring? Look at his appointments. Lungu at…

    • For all his weaknesses, at least Lungu seems to be sensible unlike your mentor Sata. Just look at Lungu’s appointments and compare them to that of your mentor. We shall call a spade, a spade

  5. Fair enough, the amount of money spent/wasted on bye has been revealed. what the people are also repeatedly asking is the amount of money spent on government and political leaders on their evacuations for treatment abroad over the same period of time from 2011. They have and are still being flown with their big entourages to RSA, UK, India, Israel, USA. Please reveal the figures since the monies are drawn from public coffers.
    There is no running away from this one.

    • Think of the money that has been spent on Nsanda. This man was in Milpark Hospital for over two months at the expense of the taxpayer. What a crying shame!
      There is gross misuse of funds by PF other than the bye elections,which I think are a but a tip of the iceberg. Imagine how much has been spent on trips abroad and fuel costs on escorting EL to and from the airport. Wastage!e pensive vehicles for new office bearers! What about the old ones? Where are they?dont tell me the old office bearers go with them!

    • Why limit it only to 2011. This has been going on even in Mwanawasa, RB’s time etc a lot of mone has been spent so plz it not only since 2011

  6. another bye election is coming in eight months time . what a worst of money . just because some one wants to rule at all cost . Marubish kampyongo . your President is been . gallivanting every where tatekapo amatako panshi ever since he was elected . ok time is coming . God is watching

  7. As long as we continue dilly-dallying over mode of adopting cost of this nature will continue to be incurred

  8. @Lusakaboy, very well put: “docile incompetence”. There is so much wrong with the Zambian psyche that is mistaken for “being peaceful”. You should watch docile motorists screaming at me to “just go buy reflectors ka chik@l@” whenever I am educating cops about archaic traffic laws and showing them reasons why. We never look forward; always waiting to go ass-broke or crack-beat before we do anything. Pathetic!

  9. concerted efforts required here but thats when your HH fires MP to create more by elections,advise him on how important it is save money by avoiding such funny moves as expelling his MPs deliberately creating elections at this huge cost..

    • The Zambian constitution is the main problem to the by elections which are caused by self centredness politicians. The genuine by elections held so far were only those whose members of parliament died. Sadly even the one who was causing them was also genuine presidential by election.

  10. Goodbye Mr. Willie Nsanda.

    But don’t wory the Kachasu Man will join you before the end of next

    year 2016.

    It is good that corrupt leaders are facing the wrath of the soil one

    by one.

    You think we are happy with the way Lungu is running the country?

    Our Kwacha has fallen while the Embasy Park Man is busy

    fighting Mutembo Nchito, Mmembe and Kabimba.

    We Zambians are not happy.

    Even if lungu dies tonight no able minded Zambians would mind.

    Lungu is the most useless President to have ruled Zambia.

    • Protactor
      Please speak on your behalf you have no mandate of all of us to claim to be soeaking on behalf of Zambians.For all i know you are not even a kapaso.At the very least speak on behalf of your under5.

  11. …….and we are still wondering why as a nation we are still walloping in poverty….??….hypothetically speaking, what could that much money done in terms of social aspects….plenty…

  12. Why are you complaining, you are the same chaps that shout pabwato!! and ifintu ni Lungu without thinking. Continue suffering. Hold your leaders accountable don’t worship them then we will see change in their behaviour.

  13. These by-elections were caused by Sata’s greed for power – his desire to control 66% of Parliament at any cost. Happily he failed and kicked the bucket to meet his master, Satan. Now these PFools are blaming the Constitution!

  14. In Satanomics and Bembanomics you just borrow and spend money with only political dividends in mind.

    Never again shall we allow wasteful,backward Bembas to lead Zambia again.Finito.

  15. There goes an ***** ostracizing potential voters but still dreaming that Under 5 will win.Who will vote for him if you insult us?His catlle?

    • Dull people like you are the ones who vote for useless individuals just to teach someone a lesson. If you had a brain, your vote would be based on objectivity and not because you are insulted, that is just being shallow and childish and the unfortunate thing is chaps with your mental capacity are the majority in this country.

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