Maravi

Sata petitions election

Sata petitions election
Written by Inonge Noyoo
Saturday, November 15, 2008 4:22:04 AM

THE Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata has petitioned the October 30 presidential election demanding a scrutiny and recount of votes cast in all the 150 constituencies.

And Sata has reiterated his call to his supporters to resist violence even in the midst of provocations from senior police personnel.

In his petition filed in the Supreme Court by party lawyers Winter Kabimba, Mumba Kapumpa, Mathew Pikiti and Edgar Lungu, Sata averred that President Rupiah Banda won by a narrow margin of 35,209 votes or 1.86 per cent of the total votes cast in the 150 constituencies of the country.
Sata stated that out of the 1,791,806 total votes cast 23,596 were declared as rejected votes mostly in urban constituencies which figure he said appeared unreasonably high.
He said from the information received from his election agent the votes cast in the elections were not correctly recorded and accurately counted at some polling stations.
Sata complained that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) declared the presidential polling day as of October 30, 2008 from 06:00 hours to 18:00 hours.
He averred that at Sikongo and Sinjembela polling stations in Kalabo and Shang’ombo constituencies voters were unlawfully permitted to vote on October 31 and November 1, 2008 which were not the prescribed polling days adding that the votes cast at these stations should thus be discounted.
Sata stated that the cursory perusal of the vote result sheets for some of the rural constituencies as opposed to urban constituencies show that there was a negligible number of spoilt or rejected papers or none at all which does not reflect the true levels of literacy.
He averred that although there was the general poll turnout in the range of 40 to 45 per cent, there was an inexplicable high voter turnout in certain rural constituencies such as Mkaika, Vubwi and Sinjembela, which coincidentally recorded majority votes for President Banda.
He said the high voter turnout in these areas raises possibilities of mispostings, miscounting or transmission of wrong results due to human error.
"That in some polling stations there were disparities in the total votes cast and the total number of used ballot papers as in the case in Lyatimbwa [Nalolo constituency], Mutwa [Senanga constituency], Muyumbana School [Kalabo Central constituency], Imilangu School [Kalabo Constituency], Kalenga [Kalabo constituency]. That some of the constituency announcement poll results were processed by persons who were duly gazetted as constituency returning officers as is the case in Chisamba, Mwembeshi, Mchinga, Serenje, Milengi, Mbala and Senga Hill constituencies," he stated.
Sata averred that there were disparities in some of the constituencies and polling station results announcement forms between the recorded results in figures and in words for constituencies such as Nalikwanda [Lwiimba polling station], Luena [Ndanda, Itufa and Nambwae polling stations], Bwacha , Mangango, Lusaka Central, Rufunsa, Kasempa, Kabushi and Nkana.
Sata said some poll announcement result forms such as those from Masaiti on the Copperbelt, Limachi and Itufa in Western Province showed that the results were altered without any witnesses authenticating the alterations.
He said some of the announcement result forms were not authentic as they were not signed by the constituency returning officers as in the case of Lumezi Constituency.
Sata stated that the results for Lwambi and Nyengo polling stations in Sikongo Constituency were identical in respect of all the four candidates adding that such electoral results were not only incredible but cast statistical doubt on their accuracy.
He asserted that during the verification of the ballot papers held in all constituency totaling centers on Thursday November 6, he was informed by his agents in constituencies such as Chongwe, Senanga and Zambezi West that ballot boxes were found unsealed contrary to the electoral regulations.
He stated that this raises the possibilities of tampering with the ballot boxes thereby requiring careful scrutinising of all the election materials.
Sata averred that as a result of the foregoing errors or disparities in the results at polling stations or totalling centres, President Banda only required an average of six votes at each of the 6,456 polling stations to win by a margin of 35,000 votes or for him to be under-credited by the same number to lose the election.
"In view of the forgoing, it is highly probable that the narrow margin of 35,209 in favour of President Banda can be obliterated through the scrutiny and recount of all ballot papers and election materials," he explained.
Sata is asking court to declare as president whichever candidate is found to have received the highest number of votes cast, any other equitable relief as the court may determine and cost.
And addressing his supporters who had gathered in front of the Supreme Court chanting; 'we want change' and carrying a poster of USA president elect Barack Obama, Sata said the filing of the petition was the beginning of the fight of the party's victory and right.
"Today is the beginning of the fight for our rights, we are going to use our brains not our fist, if you look at the policemen surrounding you they are suffering like you. So we don't want to make more problems for them if anything, we have to help them there will be lots of provocations from their bosses but it is from their bosses not them...We need to cooperate with them, no violence no fighting," said Sata.

Labels: ELECTIONS, PF, SATA

posted by MrK @ 4:20 AM