POLITICAL Parties in Zambia have been urged to adopt candidates who have a clean record to inspire confidence in the electorates.
Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) Kariba Ward Councillor in the suspended Livingstone City Council, Friday Nkonde, said there was need for political parties to adopt candidates with clean records to inspire confidence in voters.
Mr Nkonde challenged aspiring candidates to declare their past records so that the electorates vote from an informed perspective.
He was speaking in Livingstone during a Public Forum for aspiring parliamentary candidates hosted by the Livingstone Press Club.
“Political parties should adopt candidates who are clean both as individuals and in the public domain.
“We need candidates that the electorates will be appreciating and not candidates who will be inconvenienced by law enforcers or courts after they are elected,” Mr Nkonde said.
United Party for National Development (UPND) aspiring parliamentary candidate for Livingstone, Matthew Jere, said he had a clean record.
Mr Jere said he had never been arrested by police offices or Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over the last 10 years that he served as a councillor and deputy mayor in the Livingstone City Council.
“As UPND, we will ensure all wards will have good roads because this is a tourist capital.
“As an MP, my job is to explain the policies of central Government. Recently, MPs did not know that one of the contents in the Amended Constitution was grade 12 certificate. Are we going to continue sending people who pass laws that they don’t understand,” he said.
He said he would use his experience in the Livingstone City Council to improve the Constituency.
Mr Jere said he would address the poor state of roads especially in Townships to attract tourists to those areas.
“We want tourists to visit Songwe, Jack Mwanampapa, Sinde and Kasiya in the outskirts of Livingstone instead of just visiting the central business district.
“I will also not allow a situation where political party cadres’ take over construction jobs that are meant for experts like the case was during the 2013 United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly,” he said.
Patriotic Front (PF) aspiring parliamentary candidate for Livingstone Edward Ntinta said he was a clean person going by his past record as provincial engineer for Southern Province.
Mr Ntinta said he would integrate youths into political parties positions once he was adopted and elected as area MP.
“I want PF to adopt me because the way we voted in 2015 so that we continue with various developmental projects in the city,” he said.
Mr Ntinda, who is graduate from Copperbelt University, said he was an action oriented person.
“I don’t shy away from many challenges and PF has done a lot so we need to continue with the projects,” he said.
Mr Ntinda said he would create job opportunities for street kids as well as elderly women and men in Livingstone once he was adopted and elected.
He said the PF Government already had a youth empowerment policy which he would use to create jobs for the young people.
“We have poor roads in townships and we need to improve on them. PF has a lot of programmes which need to continue until they are logically concluded.
“The modern market and bus station will be completed and you will need a forceful person like myself,” he said.
PF will have no candidate going by such a yardstick. Jameson himself is already a victim. After all they believe in “nga ta wa ba po jelebo ninshi tauli mwaume”.
Who is clean in Zambia if preachers like Pule, Mumba and fatherless Bwalya are not clean
From Changwa to Kaizer and Sata Jnr etc-they are all corrupt. Thanks.
vote pf out..atase
Baseless argument, who says if you have never been arrested by the ACC and police then you are clean? We have plenty of such people in society but they are not clean per se. Some of you are too clever and get away with the crimes and you want to foool people that you are clean. We just need people who can have the work done and initiate development in the country and not this mediocre business we have at the moment. There are also many people who were arrested and yet they were just framed. So be careful with what you are wishing for!
Common in Zambian politics. Candidates only stating what they wish they would do but never explaining how. The usual blablabla…blablabla….blablabla.Tourism `s problems are more profound than just infrastructure development. Infact we need the right by-laws that would help infrastructure development.For instance the city planning should not only be left to the planner and a few administrators.See how we claim to be a tourist town and yet allow infrastructure in the name of “development” right on the animal corridors .Is it not a paradox that we claim to be a tourist capital and practice the opposite?