Maravi

My victory is choking to Rupiah, HH - Masebo

My victory is choking to Rupiah, HH - Masebo
By Staff Reporters
Wed 30 Nov. 2011, 14:00 CAT

MMD and UPND is nothing compared to PF - Kabimba

SYLVIA Masebo says her victory in the Chongwe parliamentary by-election must be choking to Rupiah Banda and Hakainde Hichilema.

And PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba says the MMD's loss of the Chongwe and Nakonde parliamentary seats is a total indication of their exit from the country's political landscape.

In an interview yesterday after she was declared winner in an election characterised by low voter turnout, Masebo said God's will had finally prevailed.

Masebo won the Chongwe parliamentary seat with 8,607 votes after beating her closest rival of the MMD-UPND electoral pact candidate Adrian Bauleni who polled 3,502 votes.

"First of all the first election was stolen from me and the people of Chongwe cannot be bought by any amount of money or power," Masebo said in reference to the controversial loss she suffered on September 20 when short-lived parliamentarian Japhen Mwakalombe of the MMD was declared winner.

"God's will always prevails and I know that just as my victory has brought happiness, I also know that there are some who are choked. People like Rupiah and his lot they did everything.

Rupiah Banda, HH, they did everything possible so that they could stop me from representing the people of Chongwe. Even in this by-election, the MMD did try to do what they know best, corruption."

Masebo was declared winner at 03:05 AM yesterday by returning officer John Lungu.

"I, John Lungu, being the returning officer for Chongwe Constituency, do hereby declare that I have in accordance with the law ascertained the results of the poll in the said constituency and that they have been given to Chulu David FDD 117 votes.

Mativenga Johannes UNIP 123 votes, Bauleni Adrian UPND 3,902 votes, Masebo Sylvia PF 8,607 votes," Lungu said.

"I further declare that a total 152 votes had been declared rejected as invalid. I therefore declare that the said Sylvia Masebo to be this day duly elected as member of parliament for Chongwe Constituency."

Just after Masebo was declared winner, PF supporters went into wild celebration singing and dancing, jumping up and down to the popular Don't Kubeba song at Chongwe Civic Centre, the totalling centre for the constituency.

Along the Great East Road, pockets of PF supporters could be seen at dawn celebrating the victory of Masebo until daybreak.

FDD losing candidate David Chulu said he was shocked that he had lost the election.

"I expected to score more than this, unlike in the last election I did better than this. To me this is shocking and very disappointing so I can't say much. The people have spoken, we will wait for next time," Chulu said.

"People were threatened in several ways by these big parties so they were all threatened to say if they don't give the vote to the ruling party, something bad would happen to them so they were pressurised in that way. For that reason many people shunned, they never came out to vote because of that."

Meanwhile, UPND officials, looking disappointed, walked out of the totalling centre long before the retuning officer declared the winner.

UNIP losing candidate Mativenga congratulated Masebo on her victory.

"It's acceptable, what can we do? We have to congratulate her, she has done it. We are after development not arguments, so we have to support her to bring development to Chongwe," said Mativenga.

And Bauleni had his phone switched off by press time.

The Chongwe parliamentary seat fell vacant after the resignation of Mwakalombe, a former district commissioner for the area.

Chongwe has 52,156 registered voters and the turnout for this election was 12,901 with 152 rejected ballots.

And in interview, Kabimba said the expected loss of the MMD in all the by-elections held on Monday had shamed both the MMD and UPND who had been working together to outdo the PF .

"The elections have proved that the MMD and UPND is nothing compared to the PF. It clearly shows that the MMD and UPND are exiting the country's political landscape," Kabimba said. "The PF has continued to grow.

It is the only party that continues to appeal to the aspirations of Zambians and we are happy that our members are working hard."

Kabimba, however, said it was unfortunate that people of Southern Province had alienated themselves from the country's development agenda through their pattern of voting for the same party.

"We want to continue appealing to the people of Southern Province to vote in a manner that brings development to the whole country. They should not continue exhibiting a culture of not being part of the development … and my appeal is they must not be deceived by the UPND leadership that the rest of the country was fighting them," he said.

And Kabimba said the ruling party had not received any applications from its former members Edward Mumbi and Charles Chimumbwa, adding that he was shocked that the two had been going round purporting to have defected to the PF.

And UPND parliamentary candidate Oliver Mulomba has scooped the Magoye seat.

Mulomba polled 6,222 votes beating his closest rival Eugene Munyama of PF who got 2,627votes.

UNIP's Guest Mwanankaama got 66 votes, Benita Mwanza of ADD got 136 and Fred Mweemba of FDD polled 76 votes.

Addressing supporters after being announced winner, Mulomba appealed to people not to harass any political party.

He called for unity and advised UPND members against what he termed "faction groups" formed during campaigns.

"Now that campaigns are over, I am appealing to all of you to remain united and work together. You've not elected me to bring about divisions in the constituency, you've elected me to bring development," said Mulomba.

Mulomba asked losing parties to join him in taking development to Magoye.

Meanwhile, the PF has scooped five out of eight local government seats in Eastern Province.

The PF scooped all the three wards in Lundazi, one in Chama and the other one in Chadiza.

The MMD got three; one in Chipata and two in Mambwe.

The PF candidates lost with slim margins in Mambwe while in Chipata the ruling party lost with about 300 votes.

Provincial PF treasurer John Chibanga said the ruling party was penetrating the province very well and people were now accepting the wind of change.

"I think what we need to do now as PF government is to work on the infrastructure in rural areas. We need to work on the roads so that people could have good roads," Chibanga said.

And acting MMD chairperson Ezekiel Mtonga congratulated PF for winning some seats in a province where they were weak.

Mtonga said PF had not levelled the playing field.

"A lot of our people were intimidated by people from PF and such things are very common in rural areas. The PF should show high dignity and democratic principles and values, not what they are doing. We wish PF all the best but Eastern Province is still an MMD stronghold," he said.

Mtonga said PF should not use its position as a ruling party to start intimidating people.

"What PF should not forget is that they will move out of power one day like MMD and the other party will be following them. How will they feel? I believe that Zambian democracy must mature. These things like trying to fix the opposition, trying to use government machinery are not good," he said.

On the Copperbelt, the PF got two seats out of three.

The MMD won a local government seat in Chingola's Nchanga Constituency.

And PF's Evaristo Mwila scooped the Kwacha ward in Kankoyo Constituency in Mufulira.

In Chingola, MMD's Derrick Chilundika scooped the Buntugwa ward by-election after polling 598 votes. PF candidate Mumba Soko was second with 334 votes. Chilekwa Mwewa of the FDD got 19 votes while UPND candidate Anthony Kaira got 18 votes.

MMD Copperbelt information and publicity secretary Yotam Mtayachalo said the victory came as a surprise considering that Chingola was predominantly PF.

He said the party would continue working hard until it reclaimed its lost glory.

In Mufumbwe, MMD's Kellingson Kanayi won the Munyambala seat beating the PF's George Kafitwe and UPND's Langson Lungungwa.

Kanayi polled 326 votes against Kafitwe's 250 votes while Lungungwa polled 36 votes.

In Livingstone Police camp, the electorate overwhelmingly voted for the PF in the Maramba ward by-election.

According to the election results released by Livingstone returning officer George Kumoyo on Monday, the PF candidate Moses Simbaya polled 156 votes against the UPND's candidate Chilunda Kangai's 19 votes while the MMD and the ULP managed to get 15 and 10 votes respectively.

In Musi-o-Tunya, Kumoyo declared Chrispin Mweemba of the UPND as councillor after he polled 258 against the PF‘s Beauty Bwalya who polled 208 votes.

In Siavonga's Mulimya ward, an independent candidate Dickson Chileke scooped the local elections while in Choma's Nachibanga and Mubula wards, the UPND scooped the seats.

In Nachibanga ward, UPND's Kingston Handindo polled 460 while PF's Fred Makondo polled 143 and in Mabula Annie Hamiyanda polled 333 while PF through Joseph Bwalya polled 171.

In Kapiri Mposhi, the PF scooped all the two seats in the local government by-elections.

PF candidates John Mutambo and Angela Muleya respectively scooped the Mushimbili and Kashitu wards which were formerly held by the MMD.

Mutambo polled 527 votes against MMD's Chuni Pythias who got 303 votes. UPND candidate Wilson Banda polled 40 votes while UNIP's Webster Siwakwi only got two votes.

In Mushitu ward, Muleya polled 193 votes to beat the MMD's George Nsandabunga who got 80 votes. UPND candidate John Mudenda came third with 66 votes.

The Mushimbili ward elections were caused by the death of a PF candidate, Chila Mugala, early in September while the Kashitu ward elections were deferred after a mix-up of pictures for candidates on the ballot paper.

And the PF has scooped the Nakonde parliamentary seat after its candidate Abel Sichula beat his closest rival MMD's George Sinkala.

The by-election which was necessitated by the death of PF candidate colonel John Phiri prior to the September 20 general elections was marred by apathy.

Returning officer Titus Walima declared Sichula duly elected member of parliament for Nakonde constituency at around 03:40 hours.

Sichula polled 8,841 votes against MMD's Sinkala who came in second with 2115 votes, while the rest of the results saw FDD's Kingfred Siame polling 315 with UNIP's Kennedy Simbeye coming out last with 154 votes.

A total of 11, 519 votes were cast from the 40,404 registered voters in all the 65 polling stations in the constituency while 94 ballots were rejected.

And in an interview, Walima attributed the low turnout of voters to the short space of time in which the by-elections had occurred, from the time the country went to the general elections.

"The way people reacted to the tripartite elections, I think the turn out then was quite high, I would not know reasons but may be they were so much overwhelmed with the tripartite elections," Walima said.

And Sichula said he expected to win because it had been a long journey for him.

"I feel good and was expectant of this victory because it has been a long journey, I started in 2006 contesting as member of parliament so I think the seat was waiting for me, it was just a matter of time," said an ecstatic Sichula.

Sichula pledged to work on the water situation in the area and speed up the construction of the district hospital.

And Shiwang'andu member of parliament Stephen Kampyongo who had been one of the people that had been campaigning for Sichula, said it was a deserved victory for the PF as they had put in their best.

Meanwhile, the announcement of Sichula as winner resulted in wild jubilations in the Nakonde central business area as PF youths who were led by their constituency official Ronald Mulwe and other senior party officials drove from the council to Sichula's guest house which is just at the edge of the Zambia/Tanzania border.

MMD's Sinkala, who alleged that financial resources were heavily put into the by-election, however said there was nothing to dispute about the results.

"Whether the victory was bad or good or done with what you may call an upper hand in the manner things were managed especially the economic resource, all in all there is nothing one would dispute or say otherwise, defeat has been defeat and I give the pat on the back of my colleague," Sinkala said.

Sinkala said he would rally behind ‘the system' and help build the country and Nakonde Constituency, saying that was what his vision was centred on.

Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, MMD, PF, SYLVIA MASEBO, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 7:01 PM