Panji gives MMD advice on PVT

Panji gives MMD advice on PVT
By Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Sun 20 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT

COL Panji Kaunda has advised the MMD not to oppose the parallel vote tabulation because they will need it one day when they are in opposition. And Col Panji says pacts belong to the people and not the leaders.

Featuring on Face-to-face with the community programme on Radio Icengelo yesterday, Col Panji said PVT was a good way of avoiding electoral disputes because it enabled stakeholders to monitor figures at every point.

“In 2006 in Kapoche what was announced by the returning officer there did not correspond with what was announced in Lusaka and because an agent had monitored what happened on the ground, that became a good ground for petitioning the seat and that is how it was nullified,” Col Panji explained.
He said had PVT been effectively used in Malole, a situation where Emmanuel Munaile was announced as winner despite not really winning, would have been avoided.

He said he did not believe in international election observers because they only came in a few days before the actual voting day.

“But free and fair elections do not start on the actual voting day; they start even four years before. Do we have a free and fair public media where people can freely express themselves?” he asked.
He said the ruling party always had a forum to be heard on ZNBC television but this was not the case with the opposition.

And Col Panji said the mistake that Zambians made was that they left everything to their leaders to decide.

“The Pact is not dead. Leaders have differed but the people are still here,” he said.

And Col Panji said belonging to a political party should not take away people's freedom of thought.

Responding to UPND national youth chairman Joe Kalusa who wondered whether Col Panji was a genuine UPND member for supporting PF leader Michael Sata and why he was not in Lusaka for the card renewal exercise, Panji said belonging to a political party did not take away his freedom of choice.

He said national issues should be above personal preferences and that people did not need to attach emotions because that eroded their sense of judgement.

And Copperbelt Pact Forum member Christopher Kang’ombe said the collapsed PF-UPND pact should have been called the people’s pact.

He said the people's pact could however not work without a figurehead.

“If they pact leaders can’t agree, we’ll come up with an agenda of what we want them to implement,” he said.

Kang’ombe said advocates of a united opposition had decided to form the Copperbelt Pact Forum to enable people make their proposals and views on how they wanted the united opposition to proceed.

He clarified that the Copperbelt Pact Forum was not formed in response to the collapse of the PF-UPND pact but rather to form a united opposition aimed at bringing together all parties that believed in a united opposition.

Meanwhile, another Copperbelt Pact Forum member Peter Sinkamba said the pull-out of UPND from the PF-UPND pact did not mean that the people's pact was dead.

He said Zambians needed a strong voice in Parliament because the government currently was able to push in bad laws with impunity since they had the numbers.

On the PVT, Sinkamba urged the Law Association of Zambia to rise to the occasion and give guidance on the matter.