Police summon MMD candidate over vote buying

Police summon MMD candidate over vote buying
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Sun 18 Sep. 2011, 13:53 CAT

Mufulira police last week summoned MMD Mufulira Constituency candidate Evans Chibanda over allegations that he got over 300 voters cards in Kawama East on Monday afternoon.

Chibanda's summoning followed a complaint by the PF candidate John Kufuna.
Police sources in Mufulira disclosed that Chibanda was summoned to report to the central police over allegations of vote buying.

"There are serious campaigns here and the situation is becoming tense everyday. In the midst of intensified campaigns, we are receiving all sorts of electoral malpractice reports; the latest being the one involving Evans Chibanda. The record at the police is that he was buying voters cards in Kawama on Monday and he has been summoned to appear before the police for questioning," the source said.

However, Chibanda refuted the allegations saying he was merely verifying in the voters register whether the people he was giving MMD party regalia were voters or not.

He said he never collected any voter's cards from the people of Kawama.

Chibanda said as a candidate, he had the right to check and verify on whether the people he was giving MMD party regalia during campaigns were voters.

"These materials we are giving people are very expensive and as candidates, we bought the voters register. So we were merely checking on whether the people we were giving the materials are genuine voters.

I never got any single card because I also need votes. Now if I buy voter's cards where can I take them? These allegations are malicious and untrue," Chibanda said.

Kufuna in an interview said he was tipped by one of the residents of Kawama that Chibanda and his campaign committee team were collecting voter's cards from the people in the area.

"We decided to report the matter to the police and we went into Kawama with two police officers and they heard from the people who witnessed the malpractices of Evans Chibanda. They collected about three hundred voter's cards and witnesses are there to testify and they gave evidence before the police," Kufuna said.

He said people must be wary of the desperate attempts by the MMD to manipulate this year's elections.

Meanwhile, Mufulira electoral officer Charles Mwandila advised political parties to report any allegations of electoral malpractice to his office to allow the electoral conflict resolution committee to address the issues adequately.