BY GIDEON NYENDWA
The fact that PF did not petition UPND parliamentary seats does not mean that they were clean in their dealings, PF Deputy Media director Edwin Lifwekelo has said.
Mr. Lifwekelo said UPND seats could have been petitioned on the same grounds the PF seats were petitioned especially in their strongholds but they frustrated all the witnesses that wanted to testify against them.
“That was the reason why we never petitioned, it’s not like they were saints” he said.
He said that they had a lot of people who were willing to testify against the UPND but they were intimidated by the UPND and they chickened out.
“They changed their mind out of fear,” he said.
Mr. Lifwekeko said in Southern, Western and Northwestern provinces there were a lot of illegalities that were being perpetrated by the UPND upon which they would have based their petition but all the witnesses that came forward were later frustrated.
He also said the grounds upon which all the PF seats were nullified were fictitious and not based on facts.
Mr. Lifwekelo said all political parties used to take mealie meal for their foot soldiers who were going on door to door campaigns because people needed to be eating and that should not be categorised as distributing mealie meals to voters.
He said the electoral law in Zambia needed to be reformed.
There was a need to have a firm and credible electoral Act for the process to be smooth, he said.
Mr. Lifwekelo said looking at the premise ont which the PF seats were nullified, suggests all the seats including the UPND ones would have been nullified.
Nine PF seats have been nullified by the High court which includes Bowman Lusambo’s Kabushi constituency , Joseph Malanji’s Kwacha constituency, Mutotwe Kafwaya’ Lunte constituency, Sibongile Mwamba’s Kasama Central constituency, Luka Simumba’s Nakonde constituency, Allan Banda’s Chimwemwe constituency, Taulo Chewe’s Lubasenshi constituency, Kalalwe Mukosa’s Chinsali constituency and Christopher Chibuye’s Mkushi North constituency.
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