By ADRIAN MWANZA
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) member Chishimba Kambwili has pleaded with the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to allow political parties to start campaigning ahead of the August 12 General Elections.
Mr Kambwili in an interview said ECZ needed to let parties both ruling and in opposition to start their campaigns because Covid-19 restrictions had made it impossible to do their campaigns.
He said it was difficult at the moment to reach out to the intended audience and pleaded with the Electoral body to consider lifting the ban to allow all political parties to hold public rallies and road shows.
Mr Kambwili said the time remaining was very short and he prayed that the ECZ would lift the ban the ban on rallies and road shows to help parties to canvas for maximum votes in the remaining 2 weeks.
‘’It’s really bad how can you campaign when there are no public rallies or even road shows where you can interact with the electorate freely,’’ Mr Kambwili said.
He said what the ECZ needed to emphasize was the fact that people needed to ensure that they followed the Covid-19 guidelines which involved masking up.
Mr Kambwili said he was confident that people would be given an opportunity to campaign with the little time that was remaining.
He said he was failing to effectively campaign for President Edgar Lungu because of the Covid-19 guidelines and that he was praying that the restrictions would be eased before August 12.
And Mr Kambwili called on ECZ to take punitive action against all those that were involved in political violence.
Mr Kambwili said that people that were propagating violence needed to be severely punished to deter other would be offenders from committing the same vice.
‘’What is happening is not fair and ECZ should reconsider because there is no way everyone should suffer over one political party’s barbaric behaviour,’’ he said.
He charged that culprits needed to be taught a lesson and that the aggressor in all the incidents were always from the same named political party.
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