Declaring election win not a crime – Tonse

By MUBITA KATETE DECLARING oneself winner of an election should not be criminalised as sedition because political candidates have a right to express their assessment of election results using their available tools such as the Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT), the Tonse Pamodzi Alliance has said. Muhabi Lungu, the alliance’s secretary general has recalled that President Hakainde Hichilema had previously declared himself an election winner and was never arrested, questioning why opposition figures should be arrested for making similar claims. Speaking on Diamond TV, Mr Lungu said political processes should not be criminalised merely because a candidate announces that they were leading or had credible information that they had won an election. “I have told you that including our own President (Hakainde Hichilema), he declared himself that he had won. In fact, in the other elections, he stated that he felt the elections had been stolen and that he had won. For five years, he never referred to President Edgar Lungu as the President. Mr Hichilema refused to recognise late former President Lungu as the country’s head of State. Who arrested him?” Mr Lungu said. He said similar conduct had occurred in previous elections without the individuals involved being arrested. Mr Lungu recalled the 2001 elections, saying he was at Mulungushi International Conference Centre when then opposition leader at the time, Anderson Mazoka declared himself the winner after initial results appeared to favour him and was never arrested or charged with sedition. “I was at Mulungushi Conference Centre in 2001 when the results were coming in. At the beginning of the election, it appeared that Anderson Kambwila Mazoka was winning. He held a press conference outside Mulungushi and declared himself winner. Nobody arrested him and said this was seditious,” he said. Mr Lungu said candidates who relied on their own data, including parallel vote tabulations should be allowed to state their position without automatically being deemed to have committed an offence.

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Declaring election win not a crime – Tonse