By AARON CHIYANZO in Chilanga
THERE are no plans to rig elections using the prison vote as the decision for inmates to vote is out of a court ruling and not a decision of the Patriotic Front, President Edgar Lungu has said.
President Lungu said he would be voted back into office after tomorrow’s polls genuinely hence the accusations by some opposition leaders were unfounded.
The President said this at the commissioning of the newly constructed Mwembeshi Remand Prison and Correctional Centre in Chilanga yesterday. “Some people are accusing us that we want to rig using the correctional service which is not the case. I have not campaigned in prisons even today am only here to commission this masterpiece infrastructure,” he said.
President Lungu said the PF government embarked on the construction of the ultramodern correctional centres on a public private partnership model with Saltech Enterprises Limited and Mukuyuv Entures Limited in order to offer quality correctional services to inmates and decongest current correctional centres.
He said the correctional centres had been designed to accommodate a combined bed capacity of 3,300 respectively. President Lungu said the structures included state of the art cells, ablution blocks, main hall, classrooms, administration block, reception, towers, skills training workshops and health facilities, among others. And Ministry of Home Affairs Permanent Secretary, Masiye Banda said the PF government did not have time for rhetoric politics and only focused on delivering development.
Meanwhile, Zambia Correctional Service commissioner general Chisela Chileshe said the completion of Mwembeshi Correctional Centre would see the relocation of Kamwala Remand Prison which houses over 800 inmates against a capacity of 92 inmates.
Dr Chileshe said Kamwala Prison was right in the heart of Kamwala business trading area hence compromised on security. And an inmate Marios Daka said the commissioning of the new facility was proof that President Lungu had a heart for the most vulnerable.
