By SIMON MUNTEMBA
THE UPND has been using non-existing voters including long dead people to win elections in their perceived strongholds and that is why they are so scared of the new voters’ registration and updating of the voters’ roll, Patriotic Front deputy Chief whip Tutwa Ngulube has said.
Mr Ngulube said the arguments by the UPND president, Mr Hakainde Hichilema over online voter registration and updating of the voters’ register were invalid and unreasonable.
In an interview, Mr Ngulube noted the protracted mistrust and casting of aspersions on the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) by Mr Hichilema over its decision to introduce the online voter registration and the voter registration update was just a way of continuing to win elections in his party’s strong holds using `ghost’ voters.
He accused the UPND of having been winning elections in Southern Province with huge margins using dubious means.
“The UPND is so scared of the new voters’ roll because the majority of the people who supposedly vote for them in their strongholds do not actually exists.
“And also there is this belief or an allegation that even people who died a long time ago do remain on the voters roll and the UPND has been championing and winning election in their perceived strongholds based on ghost voters.
“So we want to tell them that when the new voters roll is established, there will be no ghost voters because everyone will be required to present themselves physically,” Mr Ngulube said.
He added, “And you will see what will happen in 2021, the number of votes that they were getting, those 45,000 vs three or zero will not be there because the people of Zambian have now realized that the UPND have been winning elections in Southern Province using dubious means.”
Meanwhile, Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) president Sean Team has sounded an alarm to Zambians that opposition leaders Hakainde Hichilema, Chishimba Kambwili and Nevers Mumba were planning to cause confusion ahead of the 2021 general elections.
Mr Tembo said the opposition leaders being led by Mr Hichilema have been conducting themselves in an unreasonable manner by seeking to create a narrative that everything about ECZ was wrong.
“It is our considered view that some of these opposition political party leaders including UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema, NDC’s Chishimba Kambwili and MMD’s Nevers Mumba, are hell-bent on causing confusion and anarchy ahead of next year’s general elections, so that they can create advance excuses to give to their supporters for their likely poor performance in next year’s elections,” he said.
Mr Tembo also said there was nothing wrong to pre-register and updating of the voter roll especially that the process of online registration was optional.
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