Maravi

People are not for sale - Sata

People are not for sale - Sata
By Patson Chilemba in Chembe
Thursday October 16, 2008 [04:00]

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday said people are fed up with the MMD and its corrupt leadership. Commenting on the overwhelming defeat of MMD's Judith Kapijimpanga by PF candidate Davies Mwango in the Kanchibiya parliamentary by-election, Sata said voters in Kanchibiya Constituency had sent a strong message to the MMD and Vice-President Rupiah Banda that people were not for sale.

He said the defeat of Kapijimpanga was a tip of an iceberg of the defeat Vice-President Banda would suffer in the October 30 presidential election.

"People are fed up of MMD and we are getting nothing in terms of development from Banda and his corrupt MMD," Sata said.

He said people were now aware of Vice-President Banda's character of corruption. He said Zambians would no longer allow corrupt leaders to rule them. He said MMD and its losing candidate Kapijimpanga bribed and implemented last-minute developmental projects but that did not work.

Sata said Vice-President Banda was only superior over him on the issue of corruption.

"Yesterday Banda said we cannot offer anything... I have no capacity to steal. On that one he beats me," he said.

And addressing some residents in Chilubi on his way to Chembe, Sata said if the MMD was sincere in the 2006 elections, God would have allowed them to finish their term.
"...But they didn't," he said.

In Senga Hill on Tuesday, Sata said it was sad that while roads were bad in the area, works and supply minister Kapembwa Simbao had constructed a good road and a bridge leading to his farm.

Sata said Simbao would have to explain in two weeks time how he arrived at that.

During the same rally in Senga Hill, Lukashya PF member of parliament Alfridah Mwamba said Vice-President Banda was struggling to hold rallies in Northern Province because people had rejected him.

In Mungwi on Tuesday, Sata said it was sad that people in the area had been forgotten like orphans.

In Kanchibiya in Mpika, the returning officer had not announced the electoral results by 17:30 hours although Mwango had already garnered over 5,000 votes ahead of Kapijimpanga who polled just slightly over 2,000 votes after adding up votes from 40 out of 44 polling stations.

Rough calculations of votes tallied at the centre as at 17:30 hours were estimated to have been allocated to Mwango about 5,356, Kapijimpanga about 2,112, independent candidate Selicious Mukate about 770, UPND’s Emmanuel Mulenga about 60 votes.

PF supporters later besieged the tallying centre for the Kanchibiya parliamentary by-election, threatening to beat up electoral officers over the delay to bring the remaing ballot boxes and declare their candidate winner.

The PF cadres were upset after they heard that there were delays in delivering ballot papers from some polling stations.

Labels: ELECTIONS, SATA

posted by MrK @ 3:53 PM