It's foolish, silly to blackmail voters - Mpombo

It's foolish, silly to blackmail voters - Mpombo
By Patson Chilemba
Tue 22 June 2010, 09:00 CAT

GEORGE Mpombo yesterday said it is foolish and silly to blackmail voters by taking development to them only when there is an election.

Commenting on the government's decision to grade roads in Ndola's Chifubu Constituency as the parliamentary by-election draws near, Mpombo, who is Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament and former defence minister, said Zambia would have been a lot better if the same zeal for development could be shown all the time, and not only during election times. He said it was a waste of time for the MMD to think that they could win Chifubu through political gimmickry.

That argument that development should continue even during election times is a silly argument, foolish argument. There is no way government can go to sleep. Government must ensure that they are always on the ground. You know this is a manifestation of deep-seated undemocratic practices which are found in most African countries, Mpombo said. Because people have no respect for the rule of law, there is no way government can just spring up when there is an election, no. Government must be there 24 hours, 365 days. So what they are trying to do amounts to political blackmail and also trying to undermine the electoral process.

Mpombo said such things were happening because President Rupiah Banda was a political liability who did not have a vision for the country. He said it was a waste of time for government to think they could sway the people through desperate last-minute developmental projects.

It's like he is dangling carrots before people to say unless you do this, things will not go right for you. And I strongly believe that that is not the best way to conduct elections. But we must understand that people of Zambia are not daft, they are able to see through the whole tricks. You know the people of Zambia cannot be bought by such desperate political acts, Mpombo said.

You know people are jacked up now. Politically people are very emancipated. And it's a waste of time to think that you can win Chifubu through such kind of political gimmickry. It's certainly a waste of time because these developments should have started long ago, and then today that’s when people start coming up.

Mpombo said the action by the MMD government amounted to vote buying, which should be stopped at all costs because vote buying was against the Electoral Code.

So it is something that must be condemned. The Electoral Commission of Zambia ECZ must move in and have a chat with MMD that this is not the right way to proceed. You know let us have fair elections. These are the things that bring problems. Today you are grading roads, tomorrow is violence and that kind of thing, Mpombo said. As a ruling party, we must set a high standard of electoral performance.

So I think this must be stopped. If things like this start and spring up all over the constituency then the opposition move in, we are going to prepare a ground for violence. All malpractices influencing people's votes must be checked out.

Mpombo said President Banda had no attachment to democratic principles.
If he can defy the general public by saying ˜I am stubborn then you can understand the kind of man you are dealing with. So in my view these kinds of issues are totally undemocratic and have no room in our democratic setup, Mpombo said. So we will want to ask President Banda to respect democratic principles and stop being unnecessarily so-called stubborn. Let Chifubu be an example of democratically conducted election from the beginning up to the end.