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Referendum vote flops, fails to meet the threshold

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Chairperson Judge Esau Chulu
Chairperson Judge Esau Chulu

Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Zambia Justice Essau Chulu has announced that the Referendum on a new Bill of Rights and Article 79 has failed.

Justice Chulu announced during a news conference that the referendum vote has failed to meet the first threshold.

He said the estimates of eligible voters was 7, 528, 091 and the minimum threshold was 3, 764, 046.

He said out of these, only 3, 345, 471 voted and from that figure 1, 853, 559 voted Yes while 753, 549 voted No.

739, 363 were rejected votes.

referendum

48 COMMENTS

  1. It is really sad. I blame the opposition. They made it look as if the yes vote was for Lungu forcing many people to abscond from it. Now Zambians have denied themselves an opportunity for better rights. Palast mukambe nokulanda ati boma iyanganepo on issues when in the first place you denied yourselves an opportunity to have better rights and freedom.

    • Saulosi shall we then say id its was Opposition who made it fail then it means a lot of people voted for the opposition . then the concourt issue shud be taken seriously….I just wonder why UPND will wait for Monday when Frank Bwalya has made the suit already for Tuesday..what happens if the judge fails to start off his Range ROVER to for work, or he fails to wake up fast from the ka gelo he slept ku matero???

    • The whole thing was a farce.

      Going to an election and having to vote up to 5 options from the president to the mayor and the referendum was in efficiency and diluted the whole referee mum vote.

      Your system of voting needs a serious overheaul and if shushing starting with the ECZ themselves.

      Thanks

      BB2014

    • @twende… No a lot of people didn’t vote for the opposition. If you look at the referendum votes they are very similar with the presidential results. The No and rejected votes were equally low. It is the people who absconded who spoiled the party. The opposition politicians went around telling people not to take part. ECZ and other civic organizations should shoulder some blame as well for the poor sensitization of the masses. Hahahaha i like the judge part where he wakes up kuli ka gelo. It is highly possible.Lol…. UPND are shooting themselves in the foot by waiting too long. But again if they miss out on the deadline they will be doing the country a good favour.

    • I have never seen use1ess chaps like Larry L Mweetwa, Royd Moonga and Bruce B Bwalya. These UPND 1diots have diarrhea of the mouth and if not caged will plunge this country into problems. They have been preaching hate speech and inciting people to rise against legitimately elected president. If you see one of these 2 chaps hammer, they’re the reason as to why even the referendum has failed…….. They behave worse than they’re Chainama patients.

    • SAY NO TO REFERENDUM IN DEFENCE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE AND CONSTITUTIONALISM IN ZAMBIA

      [By Brig Gen Godfrey Miyanda – 5th August 2016]

      I urge Zambians who value good governance and constitutionalism to vote NO in the Referendum on 11th August 2016. On 11th April 2016 I filed my Petition in the Constitutional Court (Cause Number 2016/CC/0006), challenging, inter alia, the combining of the National Referendum and the General Election. My prayer was that it be heard BEFORE the elections and I am still to learn when the Petition will be heard. But in the light of the one-sided aggressive promotion of the YES VOTE by President Lungu and his “Christians for Lungu” I must reiterate the other side of this contentious topic.

  2. Somehow this is a blessing in disguise tho its gonna cost money to re-run the referendum on its own. More education is clearly needed on this. And the question needs simplifying too

    • Has Lungu staged a coup d’état – a violent overthrow or alteration of an existing Constitutional order?

      The Constitution is very clear under Articles:
      103. (1) The election of a President-elect may be petitioned within 7 days,
      104. (3) Where there is an election petition the Speaker takes over the executive functions,
      105 (2)(a) The President-elect cannot assume office if there is an election petition.

      The Petitioners have asked the Court, in relation to the impugned election, to pronounce themselves inter alia on Articles 101, 102, 103, 104

  3. I was not told by anyone to vote no, I went through the constitution on article 79 and I voted no. My no is just a sign of mistrust for lungu. Any person who will judge me on this must ‘ve been born of dogs.

    • we cannot trust vodka chakolwa rungu and his pamafi party.presidential elections were more important to him than the referendum.thats why he managed to rig the results for presidential…mwanya ba pamafi!

  4. no l blame ECZ, go round Lusaka and ask people then u will know that ECZ never did its job but just got allowances without much voter education on the part of this referendum. this exercise was to be done three months before elections but ECZ had about 19 days to do that which in actual sense they went out just for nine days. let ECZ restart this process by educating people please

  5. OK WE HAVE SHARED .ELECTIONS IS FOR PF WHILE REFERENDUM IS FOR UPND
    AND WILL SEE WHAT YOU WILL DO WITH IT, AS WE ARE GOVERNING .

  6. Theres no excuse for this failure. It is Zambians themselves who have failed to enshrine in the constitution to hold government accountable without waiting for elections.

  7. The entire election is a joke… you can’t even trust this ECZ whether they colluded with Lungu to also rig the referendum vote. You can’t trust these people and I have completely lost confidence in what they announce and do. Lungu may have manipulated the outcome of this so called referendum to save himself a burden of guaranteeing rights to the citizens… he wants to perpetuate the Public Order Act which denies citizens their rights.

    On the flip side, how can the referendum fail and yet Lungu wins elections easily without going for a rerun? The whole thing is a farce and this country will take 1 million years more before it can develop, what with all the selfish bunch we have masquerading as leaders… just looking after their own belly and riches. You can have your country…

  8. Who cares, besides from the look of the mega mega behavior, too much freedoms is dag for our country today judging from the madness coming from team south

  9. Why include article 79 without explaining what will replace it. Why entice people to vote yes or no instead of making them understand the whole document and decide on their own. We shouldn’t be too clever. Let everything be done professionally.

  10. THIS MAN WILL NEVER PRESIDE OVER ANYTHING THAT WILL BE A SUCCESS. IF HE HAD ANY MORALS, HE WOULD HAVE RESIGNED BY NOW BUT ALAS, THIS IS AFRICA, PEOPLE DON’T RESIGN

  11. @MUSHOTA,
    Sometimes its good to keep quite if you dont understand matters well. Dont insult the Zambians who voted for ECL. We can not agree on everything, therefore let us respect the reasons why our friends voted for ECL. How was HH going to make a good president while he first failed to chose a good running mate? We have one Zambia to support. Maybe in your case its because you have UK to support.

    • Kmauzu, I totally disagree with you. PF should petition for the annulment of the referendum results immediately. Lungu cannot loose now, he is a winning President for life!

  12. Wow! 71% of voters representing Zambians wanted the new Bill of Rights while only 29% did not want it. That is encouraging. It is pity threshold was too high to require 50% eligible voters. ECL really showed political will, statemanship & tried hard on this one. Sadists did not want Zambians to have these rights for selfish reasons. We have in end denied ourselves superior rights & we will have to do a lot of explaining to future generations about how we managed the opportunity for our selves & for them when responsibility called. God Bless Zambia

  13. I believe ‘Congratulations’ are in order for HH & Co on this one. I remember watching him during his campaigns passionately urging his supporters to just concentrate on voting for him and not bother about the referendum.

  14. Why are you people thinking that yes means success and no means failure. THE PEOPLE SPOKE. Stop expressing dictatorial traits by imposing you wishes on us. . We rejected lungu the degenerate and you’ve imposed him on us.

  15. More cooked up results by ECZ to make the yes vote reflect lungus votes.

    Why did you take so long releasing these results ?? No one can trust ECZ.

  16. The referendum was just a tool for rigging. It failed from the moment it was initiated and everyone knows that. Eddy the initiator was equally rejected but he wants to impose himself against people’s will. That was the whole idea behind the referendum.

  17. So does it mean Refrendum reflects actual vote for political parties? Just thinking…… in the wake up of the questioned resuts from some named provinces!

  18. All those are just cooked up figures to try and legitimize rigging of the election. Those figures are meant for the naive and gullible to think that they reflect election result. You are just cheating yourself and fellow PF caders Justice Chulu not the rest of the Zambians. Each lie you continue making in an added curse. But if you are genuinely authentic, then there is no curse.

  19. HH we are more than ready to Dununa you again.. My God this is so heart breakin & i cant wait we deal with you again decisively.

  20. Most of you underestimate the intelligence of Zambians. They Did not vote for the Bill of rights because it was not duly explained to them.

  21. The issue in this referendum is especially freedom of religion, does it mean that those who speak against other religions infringes their freedom of worship.If so that referendum may bring about persecution of Gods people because they will surely rebuke apostasy in churches whether the Church-State like it or not Ezekiel 33:1-7(Even a preacher has no option but to warn,if not, peoples blood will be required at his hand). GODS JUDGEMENT ARE COMING TO EVERY MAN WHO IS IN APOSTASY AND CHURCHES MUST BE WARNED WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT. AS INDICATED IN REV 14:9-11. BUT THOSE WHO WARNS THEM WILL BE ACCUSED OF INFRINGING THEIR FREEDOM OF RELIGION/BELIEFS WHICH WILL BRING ABOUT GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION AND THE RESULT WILL BE PERSECUTION.Read also Rev 6:9-11 which shows that others will also be…

  22. ….. killed for their testimony before God judges the Earth for shedding his childrens blood.
    .No wonder it failed God wanted to give us a time to prepare for the coming persecution.Watchmen on the walls Zion prepare to blow the trumpet which will turn Zambia Upside down and make demons tremble for man thinks there is no Holy God above and the Lord himself will lead his army.Like Jewish church,the church which would have warned Zambia has laid down its burner of three angels messages fearing man and not God,but God foreknew and he will raise others up to take up the same burner and do the same work to their shame.He who has an ear let him hear.

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