Maravi

Sata accuses ECZ of inflating results in Rupiah’s favour

Sata accuses ECZ of inflating results in Rupiah’s favour
Written by Patson Chilemba and Noel Sichalwe
Sunday, November 02, 2008 12:11:36 AM

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata has accused the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) of inflating the presidential results in favour of Vice-President Rupiah Banda. And Heritage Party president Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda has cautioned the losing candidates against instigating their supporters to violent conduct.

Sata, who was fuming burst into Mulungushi International Conference Centre and immediately demanded to have an audience with ECZ chairperson Justice Florence Mumba and other officials.

However, Sata was told that the ECZ officials were at the old wing. Sata then proceeded to the old Mulungushi wing to see Justice Mumba.But Justice Mumba and her officials could not be found anywhere at the conference centre.

In the process of searching for the ECZ officials, Sata was asked by a journalist from the BBC if he would accept the final election results.

In response, Sata said: "How do I accept defeat when I have not been defeated?"

When asked further what his complaint was, Sata angrily responded: "I have given you the register for the 2006 elections which we are still using but the current one like the results for Vubwi have been inflated."

Sata further took a swipe at the various international election monitors, saying they had come for a holiday and not to monitor results. He said there were a number of irregularities which monitors had failed to notice and later on condemn.

PF spokesperson Given Lubinda, during a briefing at the election centre, asked the ECZ to suspend the announcement of results until concerns about legitimacy were attended to.

Lubinda said the party could not accept the results of the on-going presidential election because there was clear evidence of irregular alteration of results going on in the closing stages of the counting and reporting.

"There are some obvious cases of inflammation of voting figures in a significant number of rural constituencies, including Mkaika, Sinda, Milanzi, Keembe and Chisamba as was predicted by MMD's Mbita Chitala," he said.

Lubinda said there was significant confusion in the distribution of replacement voters' cards, but that this had been specifically targeted to PF strongholds.

He further said in the last 24 hours, there had been covert movements of MMD personalities in military and government transport, which aroused suspicions.

"There are significant concerns over the transmission system between field sites and the Electoral Commission of Zambia," said Lubinda. "There are numerous election results that have been submitted without the signature of our election agents, even where we know that they were in attendance."

And addressing journalists earlier, Brig Gen Miyanda said he was grateful to everyone that voted for him during the presidential election though he was disappointed that he lost.

Brig Gen Miyanda said political leaders should not exaggerate their differences. He said among the four candidates, he was the only military person but that he was speaking against violence, unlike the others.

He said other candidates did not understand that it was easy to start trouble but difficult to stop it.He said in the Democratic of Republic of Congo (DRC), violence started in the 1960s until now.

Brig Gen Miyanda said if anyone did not like the outcome of the results, they could challenge the results in court.

He said at the moment, he did not have any reason to challenge the results because people were merely making speculation about a lot of things.

"Let us not use speculation as a tool of proving an irregularity. If you have facts, present those facts," he said. He said any disciplined person that had an issue with the elections should follow the normal channels.

Brig Gen Miyanda said he did not want trouble because he had been through it when he was a young military personnel and escaped a plane crash in Shang'ombo area in Western Province.

"There is no need for us to fan troubles. Let us just talk to one another," he said.

He said the Heritage Party did not have any reported complaints against the ECZ, which he commended for organising the elections.

He said he could only comment about something negative when he had specific issues.Brig Gen Miyanda said there was a delay in the announcement election results but that it was not a malpractice.

He was happy that ECZ had quickly identified an irregularity where they swapped his votes with that of PF president Michael Sata in Kasempa Constituency in North Western Province.

Brig Gen Miyanda said ECZ had done their best under the circumstances considering that this was an emergency election.

He said the Heritage Party has always been on the ground though it might have been sleeping but that they had a country-wide network.

Brig Gen Miyanda said when he decided to contest the elections, the first objective was to win and to establish the state of the party.

"There is no way we can get to discover the state of the party unless we have gone to the battle. So for me as I am concerned, all those that voted whether its 29 votes, one vote, I thank them all. We know now that the Heritage Party is not dead but alive. As far as I am concerned also, participating has shown that we have four parties for 2011 elections."

Brig Gen Miyanda also congratulated the presidential candidates that fared well in an election and that they had worked for it.

He said his party was criticized for failing to raise enough supporters but that he had garnered more than 11,000 votes during the election.

He said during the campaigns, he raised serious issues worth consideration but that he was not covered by the media. Brig Gen Miyanda said the 11,000 votes he received from 128 constituencies was a focal point for improvement.

"So I am quite happy with the outcome considering also that if you look at the money spent, which money I think I will be giving out the figures out later which is about K250 million basically which people contributed. Now, can you imagine with that amount of money we were able to go around the country not everywhere but we have worked with minimal amounts of money showing that we can control things. In my entourage I had two vehicles and the other officials, roughly we had about five vehicles to go around the country."

He said other candidates were flying around the country and he also eventually reached where they had gone.He said his party had continued to demonstrate that there was democracy in the country.

However, Brig Gen Miyanda disagreed with ECZ for refusing to fund election monitors in Zambia, though his idea was supported by other political parties.

Labels: ECZ, SATA

posted by MrK @ 12:13 AM