President Rupiah Banda has cautioned Zambians against trusting Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata and his United Party for National Development (UPND) counterpart Hakainde Hichilema because the two opposition leaders do not respect traditional rulers.

Mr Banda said Mr Hichilema must be rejected because he has no record of having been a member of Parliament and has never even worked in the public service.

He was addressing a campaign rally at Kashima west Basic School.

“Mr Hichilema has no record of having been in power and he should feel bruised having lost twice because UPND is a tribal party. This other one (Sata) has also failed three times,” he said.

Mr Banda said for one to be President of Zambia they must be accepted by all Zambians.

He said he had to go round the country in 2008 to seek acceptance in the 150 constituencies and he came first or second in all the provinces to be President.

President Banda said he came first in the North-western province and was second in Southern and wondered what rationale was used by Mr Hichilema to go into a pact with the PF when the people of Southern province vehemently rejected Mr Sata.

Mr Banda condemned the UPND for using projects that have not been done as the basis for their campaign.
He told the people to be wary of politicians who are promising projects they cannot deliver.

The President said the ruling party has been attending to schools and roads infrastructure and the country was moving forward.

Mr Banda said the MMD understood the needs and priority of the people saying that is the reason government has sourced money to complete the Mutanda-Chavuma road.

He said government has allocated K25 billion to build Mufumbwe Boarding High school.

Mr Banda said Government was putting up infrastructure like schools in all the districts in the country so that children do not have to walk long distances.

He challenged the opposition to deny that K2 billion has been used to build 38 classroom blocks in Mufumbwe.

Mr Banda said under his leadership, government will continue with the fertiliser support programme to peasant farmers.

He asked the people of Mufumbwe to vote for the MMD candidate, Mulondwe Muzungu in Thursday’s parliamentary by-election.

Mr Banda called on the electorate in Mufumbwe to ask their conscious on who was the best candidate to bring development to Mufumbwe.

He said the ruling party will continue to open up the province and build more infrastructure in the province so that the abundant resources the region has can be utilised.

Mr Banda said the problem with the UPND-PF pact is that the two parties formed the alliance before agreeing on who will be its leader.

“None of these gentlemen is suitable for the presidency of this country, Mr Sata and Hakainde are both intolerant because they do not want to hear different opinion. It is evident that they will become dictators if they became president.

“Have you ever seen a leader who cannot even smile when they come to ask for a vote, his face is a symbol of anger and frustration, what kind of president is he going to make if he is elected?” he asked.

Mr Banda said Mr Hichilema has always been demeaning people while Mr Sata on the other hand has been insulting the same people he wants to rule.

“Not only does he quarrel with you, he quarrels with all the people in a derogatory manner. Mr Sata does not hesitate to quarrel with his paramount chief. He challenges the Chitimukulu,” he said.

Mr Banda said Mr Hichilema has broken a record of all young men of his age by twice failing in elections.
He said Mr Sata has offered himself for president but the people of North Western Province rejected him.

“I like the way you rejected him, when you don’t like someone you are very clear, very categorical. I saw the results, he got zero here and that’s why he is insulting people from this region.

“That is why I am so grateful to you because besides the fact that I have never been here before, you voted for me, meaning that you saw what MMD stands for and saw where my brother left.

And I will continue to provide leadership to my party so that we can work for the people of Zambia,” Mr Banda said

He said the MMD has grown the economy of Zambia and intended to open a new mine in Mufumbwe.

President Banda said Government has already sourced US$50 million to connect all the districts to the national power grid.

He said construction of the Mufumbwe district hospital which was allocated K4.5 billion is about to be completed.

Mr Banda also welcomed five UPND defectors to the MMD saying the party was national with representation in the whole country.
[ Zambia Daily Mail ]

THE Zambia Police Service has pledged to execute its duties in a professional manner and handle cases of electoral violence according to the laws of the country.

Deputy police spokesperson, Moses Suwali said in an interview yesterday that the police would not take sides with any political party.

Mr Suwali said the police would act professionally when dealing with cases of violence in Mufumbwe, which has calmed down after unruly cadres went amok last weekend and attacked some people, including United Party for National Development (UPND) spokesperson Charles Kakoma.

And Mr Suwali said police had launched a manhunt for two MMD and two UPND cadres suspected to have been involved in various acts of violence ranging from assault causing actual bodily harm to malicious damage to property in Mufumbwe.

Meanwhile, police in Katete are investigating a case in which six people are alleged to have fired two shots in the air at Dole Village on Sunday night.

Police spokesperson, Bonny Kapeso confirmed in a telephone interview in Katete yesterday that Hamidab Banda was stopped around 23:00 hours by the six unknown people who demanded game meat from his car.

Mr Kapeso said after a confrontation, Mr Banda allowed them to search his car but they did not find any game meat in the vehicle.

He said the men got upset and one of them fired two gunshots in the air and ran away.

And the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) and the Non Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) have backed the directive by President Rupiah Banda on police to stop violence in the Mufumbwe parliamentary by-election that is threatening people’s peace.

They have also challenged opposition political leaders to issue development-oriented campaigns to garner support instead of scheming violence.

FODEP and the NGOCC said police must act decisively before lives are lost in the by-election scheduled for Thursday this week.

NGOCC executive director Engwase Mwale advised police not to wait until the president instructs them before they can stop political violence.

She said violence leaves serious effects on women and children and there are times when it escalates, which is the reason why it must be prevented without delay.

Mrs Mwale said the nation now expects the Zambia Police to give them a report on what transpired and how they would deal with future occurrences, especially that the country will hold Presidential elections next year.

Bahati Patriotic Front (PF) Member of Parliament Besa Chimbaka urged the electorate in Mufumbwe and Milanzi to avoid voting for PF and its partner in the pact, the United Party for National Development (UPND).

Mr Chimbaka said opposition leaders should be shunned for fanning violence instead of promoting the conduct of peaceful, free and fair elections.

He said it had become clear that opposition leaders were behind the violence to intimidate voters because they had been threatened by the strength of the ruling party.

Mr Chimbaka urged Zambians to support progressive political leaders like President Banda who was moving the country’s development agenda forward.

FODEP president Stanley Mhango said investigations by his organisation had revealed that hired cadres from the Copperbelt Province were the ones leading violent attacks.

Mr Mhango said leaders of political parties must condemn violence and promote peace even when the campaigns show that they would lose the election.

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema refused to take responsibility for the violence.

He said reports that he had promoted violence were unfortunate and meant to frustrate his party.

The National Restoration Party (NAREP) condemns in the strongest terms the recent violence that has characterised the Mufumbwe by-election campaigns.

National Restoration Party president Elias Chipimo Junior called for political will at all levels to curb and eradicate violence.

Mr Chipimo said it was unacceptable that 45 years after independence, politicians can remain unacceptably silent when their followers were accused of perpetrating violence.

[Times of Zambia]

The Zambian government and the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday launched the Zambian Children’s Climate Conference(ZCCC), the first of its kind in the world since the International Children’s Climate Forum(ICCF) was held in Copenhagen last year.

The conference is held in the Zambian capital Lusaka, where nearly 200 children from all over Zambia gathered to receive knowledge on adaptation and mitigation and to become main force to combat Climate Change in their home districts, according to UNICEF.

The three-day conference aims to produce climate ambassadors who also can serve as HIV/AIDS peer educators, and to develop a group of young people who can band together to tackle some of the country’s most critical problems.

Sitting in the main hall of Mulungushi Convention Centre, where Zambia has hosted most of its international conferences, the selected young delegates, aged 12 to 18, dressed in hunter green shirts, are gradually revealing their inner leadership quality through their frowns and smiles as they are undertaking the responsibilities of sustainable development of their country.

According to UNICEF Zambia Country Representative Lotta Sylwander, Zambia has never held these type of activities before, especially when children themselves are designing them.

Tinasha Bwalya,14, from Zambia’s Eastern town of Chipata is one of the young delegates who were selected after submitting the essay required by the organizers.

Having arrived in Lusaka the day before the opening ceremony young Tinasha still seems excited and nervous.

“What I will learn here (during the conference) when I go back there I will share it with my friends, I will tell them how to keep the environment clean, how to prevent the pollution,” Bwalya told Xinhua, expressing her eagerness of acquiring more knowledge on environment issues.

According to UNICEF, the delegates, will reconvene in August to present the progress they’ve achieved, continue with their climate change orientation, and will also be given training in HIV/AIDS lifeskills education.

“We sent two of our Ambassadors along with two other students to the Copenhagen Climate Conference and they did extraordinarily well and were a great credit to their country. Upon their return, they briefed me and we immediately began to plan a Zambian version of the COP15 – but UNICEF insisted children themselves organize and hold the event,” said Sylwander.

[Xinhua News Agency]

The Patriotic Front (PF) says it will next week release correct statistics of how its dominated councils have been spending resources allocated to them to prove wrong President Rupiah Banda’s revelations about PF run councils.

PF Secretary General Winter Kabimba said the recent revelation of misapplication of funds by PF dominated councils by President Rupiah Banda is a false representation of what is obtaining on the ground.

He said the PF will give the nation the correct statistics to prove that President Banda was merely politicking when he made wild revelations about PF run councils.

Mr Kabimba has described the move by Government to audit PF dominated councils as an attempt to reduce the amount of support that the PF enjoys on the Copperbelt.

He said Mr Banda and the MMD will be shocked and surprised because the Copperbelt remains a PF stronghold. He observes that the residents who are living in council houses on the copperbelt have not come out in the open to complain about high land rates,but that the MMD is paying its officials to complain about the councils.

Mr Kabimba has since advised President Banda to concentrate on the problems that are affecting the people of Zambia rather than politicking on false statistics allegedly fabricated by Government officials.

QFM

By Dr Charles Ngoma

At the time that one takes his or her ballot paper and enters the booth to choose their candidate, they are alone with their choice. There is no gun to their head to coerce them and they are not under any obligation whatsoever to mark an ‘X’ against the name of the person they did not want by their own volition. I did this many years ago, when I voted ‘No.’ I felt good, that I had done so. Before I had gone to vote, someone told me that the government of that day ‘would know who had voted ‘NO.’ I did it anyway, because I wanted to prove it. From that day on, I kept ‘watching my back’ and I supposed that one reason why I was sidelined for promotion was because of that ‘No’ vote. Well, I still lived to tell the tale. The threat, whether real or imagined, could have influenced my vote.

Other methods of rigging involve changing constituency boundaries, so that certain people are grouped together to enhance a particular vote. Constituency boundaries are very important. Take for example, in the 2006 elections; there were 81,000 registered voters in Lusaka’s Munali constituency and 48,000 in Lusaka Central. Dr Guy Scott (PF) won election to parliament, while elected by 18,000 people while Capt Austin Chewe (MMD) voted for by 22,000 people lost. In Luangwa, the MMD candidate is in Parliament on a mere 3,000 out of 8,000 votes! Since the electoral constituencies do not have equal numbers of constituents, there is great potential for rigging. What could prevent the powers that be from ‘transferring’ voters from one constituency to another over the 5 year period to make up for the deficit at the next election? This can easily be done by changing population dynamics though housing and land allocation as well as job availability. Luanshya constituency will be interesting in 2011. The incumbent MP had a majority of less than 100 in 2006. Bringing back jobs into Luanshya with predominantly MMD supporters would easily overturn that majority. The minority MP in Luanshya will have a mountain to climb! Some opposition political parties want to reduce the number of members of Parliament. This could be a very good way of rigging by merging smaller constituencies where a party is unpopular, with a larger one where it is popular.

Another way of vote rigging could come out of NRC issuance. How many Zambians have proof of age? It is therefore possible to push more under 16s to register for NRCs at the time close to elections and thus skew the statistics in any way. A subset of this registration process as means of rigging is the voter registration process itself, in that it requires the voter to cast his vote within the constituency in which they were registered! Now, this is an obviously very serious issue. Suppose a PF supporter lives in a constituency where there is strong MMD support. It is obvious that his vote here will not affect the outcome. He could go and register in another constituency, where a PF candidate has a good chance of wrestling the post from an incumbent with a slender majority.

The use of special ‘ink’ should prevent people from voting more than once, but how does one prove that the ‘ink’ at a particular table is the official ink and it is indelible? What if a certain chemical that only the vote riggers are aware of can clear the ink?

In this age of computerisation, another factor has been thrown into the equation; bugs! Yes, software bugs can be used to change an electoral result in a most profound way.

Pre-election violence should be condemned because it prevents candidates from meeting voters. In Mufumbwe, for example, there were 20,000 voters in 2006. This would be approximately 2 to 4000 households. In the 90 days of campaigning, a candidate with 100 electoral agents could visit every household without any need for the mass rallies. Mass rallies are breeding grounds for violence, because of mob psychology

The so called ‘advantage of incumbency’ constitutes malpractice. There is no limit to how far one can go here to skew the electoral process in their favour. There is no doubt that the government must continue in office until the next winner is declared and there should be no power vacuum. However, the law is silent here as to what exactly constitutes unfair advantage from those who are in power. Government resources are still at their disposal. Besides this, it is the government that appoints the officials that conduct the elections! There is an old adage: ‘He that pays the piper calls the tune.’

There are however, some pre-election practices that make news as electoral malpractice which I personally find laughable. If a candidate gives me a gift or promises that if voted into power he will do this and that for me, how is that malpractice? I could still get his ‘gift’ and go and vote against him! If a political party distribute sugar or meat to the electorate, why is that a problem? Call it vote buying or whatever, when distilled to the lowest common denominator, every manifesto is vote buying. Every voter votes in order to gain something from their candidate. A candidate would be unwise to ignore the desires and needs of the constituents and he must solicit for their vote by promising to meet those needs or demands.

So, then, what can be done to make our electoral process free and fair? In the first place we must understand that there is no electoral process anywhere in the world that is perfect. But we must have an electoral process that perfectly or almost perfectly represents the wishes of the majority of the people.. In order to do this, there must be agreement about the rules! This is crucial. All stakeholders must agree as to what constitutes free and fair elections. At this table of negotiations, those representing the ruling party should come as equals to the rest. Once agreed, as to how elections will be conducted, there must be strong sanctions against those that break the rules. The underlying factor here must be consensus. If nations can come agree on how to conduct wars (rules of engagement) how can a nation’s citizens fail to come up with an accepted conduct of the electoral process? Please, politicians come together and agree once and for all and put an end to this never ending cycle of violence and mistrust. Yes, you can!

Opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) spokesperson Charles Kakoma has accused the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) of perpetrating violence in Mufumbwe constituency.

This follows his attack by alleged MMD cadres during campaigns for the April 29 by-election.
On Saturday April 24, 2010, suspected MMD cadres broke into Mr. Kakoma’s hotel room and beat him before he was paraded half naked in Mufumbwe.

Addressing a news conference in Lusaka, Mr. Kakoma accused the MMD of attempting to
kill him.                                                                                                               And Mr. Kakoma has with immediate effect resigned as Secretary of the North-Western Parliamentarians’ Consultative Forum following his beating by the alleged cadres. He said his resignation has been prompted by the violence in Mufumbwe which he said was instigated by some parliamentarians from North-Western Province.

The Forum is chaired by Kasempa MMD Member of Parliament Kabinga Pande who is also Foreign Affairs Minister.
[MUVI TV]