Sat, 09 Sep 2017 10:03:48 +0000
…violence rocks Chilanga ward by-election
By Simon Muntemba
PF and UPND cadres clashed on Thursday in a Chilanga ward by-election rally that left scores injured and some private properties destroyed.
This incident follows last week’s clash in which UPND cadres hacked and beat up Chilanga residents for allegedly failing to attend a rally.
One resident sustained severe injuries and was admitted to the University Teaching Hospital. In the latest incident, the ruling party has been accused of initiating the fight by ferrying cadres from Lusaka to Chilanga.
The PF has however, condemned the violence and warned of disciplinary action if any of their members were found guilty.
Several people are reportedly injured while some private properties have been destroyed in the fracas involving the two leading political parties in Zambia.
This happened during the Chimanja Ward by-election campaigns in Chilanga Constituency with police coming in to quell a serious fight that developed.
According to one Police officer talked to by the Daily Nation yesterday in Chimanja Ward, he blamed the PF for having brought its cadres from Lusaka in a bus to cause confusion.
The police officer who sought anonymity said the PF cadres from Lusaka provoked matters which resulted in serious clashes.
“The information on the ground is that the PF are the ones who started the fight. They were ferried in buses from Lusaka and they started attacking and smashing the campaign vehicle belonging to the UPND members and the UPND cadres in self-defence retaliated resulting in serious clashes,” the police officer said.
The police officer, however, said that calm was restored in the area as there were a lot of police officers deployed in Chimanja Ward to monitor the situation.
Meanwhile, PF media director, Sunday Chanda said that the party stood for no-violence campaign.
Mr. Chanda stated that President Edgar Lungu has made it clear that he will not protect any PF member perpetrating violence.
“It is not within the culture of PF to perpetrate the kind violence that it is being accused of. HE President Edgar Lungu has been very clear that any form of violence should not be tolerated regardless of who the perpetrators are.
“And the challenge that we have for us to know that the cadres who were engaged in a fracas with the UPND were really PF is that no one captured the same bus that it is alleged to have carried the PF from Lusaka,” Mr. Chanda said.
He added, “It becomes very difficult to believe that the cadres were PF because we are only seeing images of victims not perpetrators of violence.”
Mr. Chanda said that any form of violence irrespective of who the perpetrators are should be condemned, adding that if the PF members were involved, then they had no blessings of the party.
He said that it was important for political players and Zambians at large to learn to co-exist. Mr. Chanda said that if any member or leader of the party will be found to have been involved in the clash, they will be dealt with.
