Only trained cops to man Luena polls

Only trained cops to man Luena polls
By Mwala Kalaluka
Mon 05 July 2010, 04:20 CAT

WESTERN Province police commanding officer Vaels Muzwenga yesterday said no police reserves but only trained officers would be deployed to beef up security in Luena Constituency ahead of the August 5, 2010 by-election.

Muzwenga said in an interview from Mongu that the Zambia Police Service intended to deploy 50 police officers to each of the eight wards in the vast constituency ahead of Thursday’s filing of nomination papers and the subsequent campaigns.

“We are going to beef it (security) up because we want to zone the area according to the number of wards. We have eight wards in Luena. We have eight zones and we are going to deploy in each ward a number of officers, maybe about 50 per ward,” Muzwenga said.

“And we intend to deploy even before the nominations of filing of papers so that as the candidates move into the area, they will find the police.”

Muzwenga said police posts would be established in all the eight wards so that any electoral-related cases could be reported and dealt with on the spot.

“There will be no need to come to Mongu Central Police and we are going to establish a command post at the nomination centre,” Muzwenga assured. “We hope that we will have enough transport, maybe two vehicles per ward so that the officers who will be patrolling there will be driving.”

Asked if any police reserves would be deployed as part of the 400-strong force of police officers in Luena Constituency, Muzwenga said there would be nothing like police reserves during the Luena by-election campaigns.

“In my view, we don’t deploy people who are not trained. Those officers who will be deployed there are police officers. There will be nothing like police reserves or what. No. All of them will be trained police officers,” said Muzwenga.

Several political party candidates will this Thursday file their nomination papers ahead of the August 5 Luena by-election, which has been caused by the resignation of its former Independent parliamentarian Charles Milupi. Milupi is re-contesting the seat on his new party Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) ticket.