'Zambians won’t accept rigged elections'

'Zambians won’t accept rigged elections'
By Patson Chilemba
Tue 08 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT

Zambians will not accept a rigged election this year, says Dr Rodger Chongwe. In an interview yesterday, Dr Chongwe - a prominent lawyer - said the MMD could only remain in power through rigging because Zambians were fed up with the ruling party.

He congratulated the opposition PF for grabbing the Mporokoso parliamentary seat from the MMD. Dr Chongwe said Zambians abhor the thought of MMD continuing to rig their way to power.

“I don't really think that the MMD, which has been in power, has any hope in any democracy in the world to be re-elected at the end of the year. Their only means of getting re-elected is by rigging the elections,” Dr Chongwe said.

“An election which has not been rigged, they cannot win. The evidence is the loss in the Mporokoso seat.”

Dr Chongwe said the MMD had been in power for far too long and could not point to any other political party for the failures in all the spheres of life, which had taken place in the last 20 years. He said the country never had a history of rigging elections before the MMD came into office.

Dr Chongwe said corruption had reached the highest point ever since the MMD assumed office.

“There are children who have been born in Zambia in the last 20 years. They know of no other government. So the schools they attend, no desks, no teachers have been there from the time they were born,” Dr Chongwe.

“Clinics in rural areas, including towns which have no personnel, inadequate drugs have been there for the last 20 years. The filth we see in our city is a creation of MMD in the last 20 years. The MMD have become complacent as a party and as a government. They should be replaced.”

Dr Chongwe said reasonable Zambians did not want the MMD to continue in office.

“Most right thinking people in this country abhor the thought of the MMD continuing to rig the elections. I am surprised that nobody has asked why is it that Derrick Chitala, when he was reported in the press, why is it that he said he had 50,000 votes which had not been fed into the electoral system?” he asked.

Dr Chongwe said the MMD in 2008 had a parallel vote tabulation system.

On former president Frederick Chiluba's recent statement that he would revive the local and international dribbling skills to ensure victory for President Banda and the MMD, Dr Chongwe said there was no need to waste breath on what Chiluba said. He said Chiluba was telling Zambians how he rigged elections.

“And all he says in that statement is that he doesn't matter what you think,” Dr Chongwe said.

He said Zambians should fight for honesty in the elections, both this year and in the years to come. Dr Chongwe said the results of the elections should reflect the will of the Zambian people and not that of intelligence officers.

He said should the elections be rigged this year; there was enough evidence on the happenings in Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt.

Dr Chongwe said Zambians had said a resounding no to the rigging of elections.

“That result will not be accepted by the Zambian people. I think we should bear that in mind and therefore we should be patriotic towards our country,” said Dr Chongwe.