C/belt records low voter turnout

C/belt records low voter turnout
Written by Staff Reporters
Friday, October 31, 2008 3:58:00 PM

A LOW voter turnout characterised yesterday's presidential polls on the Copperbelt with some voters crying foul that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has disenfranchised them after discovering that the commission did not send their voters cards. And voters in Lusaka queued up at polling stations as early as 06:00 hours to cast their votes.

On the Copperbelt at Lulamba polling station in Chambishi, out of 70 people who applied for the replacement of their voters cards, only three had their cards replaced.

Others who had both voters cards and National Registration Cards (NRCs) were also sent away because their names were not appearing in the voters register.

"I do not know why I have not been allowed to vote despite having both my NRC and voters' card. I am told my name is not appearing the voters' register," said Moses Mulenga, who was supposed to vote from Lulamba polling station in Chambishi.

Tibalange Chunga also of Chambishi complained of being disenfranchised despite having both the NRC and the voter's card.

At Chambishi Basic School polling station about 550 people had voted by 09:55 hours.

In Chingola at Chamanda polling station about 130 people had voted by 11:00 hours while at Chabanyama Community Centre, which has two streams, over 350 out of 744 registered voters had voted by midday.

At Chikola A polling station, more than 100 people had cast their votes by 10:00 hours. Voting at the station delayed after one polling station was shifted to another venue.

And voting at Chonto polling station in Mushili township came to a standstill when a man who could barely walk due to a stroke turned up to cast his vote.

Paul Musonda was carried by his relative and a police officer after demanding to be taken to the polling station to cast his vote on PF leader Michael Sata.

In an interview after voting, Musonda said he just wanted to vote and he did not care about his status because he wanted to exercise his right.

And a man was almost beaten by marketeers at Mushili market after rumour went round that he was carrying printed ballot papers.

The man was later rescued by the police and searched to make sure that he was not carrying the papers.

The angry mob carried sticks and machetes and shouted on top of their voices that they would kill the man if he was found with the ballot papers.

A check at most polling stations found that most Ndola residents started going to the polling stations as early as 04:00 hours.

And most presiding officers at polling stations said a lot of people voted in the morning but that the afternoon was slow.

"The turnout is good and people want to vote. Though it’s slow, we are confident that everyone who registered is going to vote before we close the polling stations," said Mary Chanda, a presiding officer at Matete Polling Station in Masala.

In Mufulira at Fibusa Pre -school Polling Station, out of 850 registered voters 300 people had voted by 13:00 hours.

At Boma offices Polling Station about 250 people out of 1,119 registered voters voted by midday.

Mufulira electoral officer Charles Mwandila said there were no long queues in the polling stations because of the streams that were introduced.

Mwandila said he would be worried if the situation remained the same at 16:00hours.

He explained that Mufulira had 60,000 registered voters adding that 2244 people had applied for the replacement of their voters cards.

Mwandila also said that the low turn out in some polling stations is a clear indicator that Zambians do not attach great importance to voting.

In Kitwe, 100 people had voted by 08:00 hours at Lubuto Polling Station while at Manenekela over 200 people cast their votes by 09:00 hours.

At CBU, from about 300 people who had applied for the replacement of their voter’s cards, only three had their voter’s cards replaced.

Kitwe district electoral officer Ali Simwinga confirmed having received complaints and said arrangements were being made to airlift some cards to affected voters on the Copperbelt.

And in Lusaka’s Matero Constituency, a good number of voters queued up as early as 06:00 hours, although generally there was poor turnout of voters.

At Matero Boys Basic School, only 200 had cast their votes by 07:30 hours, while Matero C, A and Kashita recorded 200, 100 and 200 voters respectively.

At Matero Community Hall, a centre for two polling districts, only 305 people had voted by 08:00 hours for Matero E, while Matero D recorded 343 voters during the same period of time.

At Lilanda Basic School, a centre for four polling districts, by 09:00 hours, 250 had already voted for Chitukuko B, while Lilanda East, West and Mabvuto C recorded 320, 310 as well as 240 voters within the same timeframe.

Chitukuko B, presiding officer, Louis Lupando said the voting process was being conducted well in an incident free atmosphere.

In Munali Constituency voting got off to a slow start, recording a low turnout in most polling stations by midday.

Due to the erratic flow of voters, some election officers were seen chatting as they waited for voters at Chelstone Basic School.

At Chainda Clinic, the trend was the same with about 500 voters having cast their votes by 09:30 hours with a short queue forming outside while at Chainda Basic School by midday, the voter turnout was also low. As at 11:57 hours, Munali had recorded 1,000 voters who mainly cast their votes early in the morning.

The polling station opened at 06:18 hours as the election and police officers called for order first.

Fairview Hotel polling station presiding officer Jack Kaale attributed the low turnout to inadequate information on where people should go and renew their cards from.

Kaale wondered if people knew where the renewal was being done, saying most people went to Fairview when the exercise was being carried out at Jacaranda Basic School.

Kaale said most people had also lost their voter’s cards and others, like students at the Evelyn Hone College (EHC) had completed and relocated to their respective towns.

Kaale said 2,426 people had registered as voters but by 11:00 hours only about 700 voters had voted.

Some monitors talked to also expressed happiness with the way things were going.

At Bauleni North B polling station in Kabulonga, only 800 voters out of a total number of 2,000 registered voters had cast their votes by 13:00 hours.

About 15 people were turned away because they had not been captured in the voters register despite possessing voters' cards, causing confusion and panic.

Woodlands west in Lubwa Ward generally registered a low turnout, with only 500 people having cast their votes by 13:30 hours, out of the registered 1,070 registered voters.

Station presiding officer Joseph Chowa said the turnout was disappointing.

He also disclosed that a number of voters were turned away for producing wrong identification documents such as passports and driver’s licences, instead of the national registration card.

Others were unable to vote as their voters’ cards were missing, despite having applied for the same during the voter replacement exercise period.

However, Chowa said he had received instructions that voters who did not find their cards at the polling station should be asked to go to the ECZ to collect their voters’ cards.

Bank of Zambia (BoZ) Governor Dr Caleb Fundanga cast his vote at about 13:35 hours, and said he was happy with the voting environment.

Cathedral 2 polling station at Lusaka Girls Basic School started on a high note, with 200 people casting their votes by 08:00 hours. The station had 1,017 registered voters.

At Nkhwazi School's Matanda polling station, the voting process was generally slow, but peaceful.

Only a few people were trickling in to cast their votes.

Presiding officer Tommy Siamuntu expressed optimism that the mood would heighten as the day progressed.

Only 450 out of 1,335 people had voted by 08:30 hours.

At Bauleni South A polling station located at Prince Takamado Basic School in Lusaka Central, 599 voters out of 2,400 registered at the centre had cast their vote between 06:00 hours and lunch time.

Queues there started forming by 05:00 hours before subsiding by mid-morning.

At Bauleni Basic School polling station North A in Lusaka Central, 400 out of 2,400 registered voters had cast their ballots between 06:00 hours and 12:30 hours.

Queues were reported to have started at 03:30 hours before voters started to trickle in after mid-morning.

At Woodlands East One polling station located at Woodlands A Basic school, 250 voters had cast their vote by early afternoon from 493 registered at the centre.

At Woodlands East Two polling station, 248 voters had cast their vote out of another 493 registered at the voting centre.

At Kabwata Community Hall voters started queuing up as early as 04:30 hours anxious to cast their votes.

A check at around 07:00 hours found three long queues leading into the hall and meandering out into the open.

Kabwata C presiding officer Peter Mtonga explained that the election officers had to divide the queues into six to lessen congestion.

At Burma Road School and Kabwata Basic School polling stations, the presiding officers refused to disclose the total number of people who had voted by 07:00 hours and 08:30 hours respectively.

At Burma Road School, a 07:05 hours rough count of voters indicated that there were about a 100 voters while at Kabwata Basic School, the turnout by 08:30 hours was low as the voters were trickling in at a slow pace.

And at Kabwata Suburb, 450 people from the total of 1,212 registered had already voted by 10:30 hours.

Station presiding officer Gladys Nyirenda said most people, especially the literate, were sent back from casting their votes because they wanted to use their driving licenses.

And the response was average at most polling stations in Libala.

Voting in Mandevu Constituency started on a good note, with a number of polling stations registering a high turnout.

At Market 2 polling station in Mutambe polling district, about 250 people had cast their votes by 11:25 hours, while at Market 1, 159 people had already cast their votes by 11:30 hours.

In Justine Kabwe ward at Marapodi B2 and Marapodi BA 2 voting started at 06:00 hours and about 550 people had cast their votes by 11:45 hours.

At Twikatane 2 and Basket 2 polling stations, about 300 people had cast their votes by 11:47 and 11:49 hours respectively, while Mukuyu 2 which opened at 06:01 hours had a voter turn out of 177 by 11:53 hours.

And voting which started on a high note in Kanyama constituency subsided by mid- morning as most enthusiastic early voters dried up by midday.

In Linda township and Kanyama site and service, an average less than 25 per cent turnout was recorded in most polling stations.

At Jeta Kanga polling station in Kanyama, presiding officer Audrey Hampekema said voting started at 06:10 hours and that by 10:30 hours about 610 out of the registered number about 2 500 had already cast their votes.

At Linda PUSH polling station, the presiding officer, who declined to disclose his identity, said about 500 out of the over 3,000 registered voters had cast their votes by 09:40 hours.

Some voters complained about the lack of voters' cards at the polling station despite having been assured during the voter replacement exercise.

But one of the presiding officers at one of the polling station adjacent to Jeta Kanga, Ernest Matengu, told affected voters that there was nothing he could do because the matter was beyond his jurisdiction.