Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General Winter Kabimba has refuted claims by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) that the ruling party is using underhand methods to hoodwink voters into voting for its candidate in the Mufumbwe parliamentary bye-election.
Mr. Kabimba told ZANIS in a telephone interview in Lusaka today that the PF wants to win the bye elections in a transparent and accountable manner, saying the accusations are baseless.
He said if the MMD feel they have no chances of winning the by-election, they should tell the voters instead of raising lies to disrupt the voter’s attention on making a right choice of a candidate.
He said it is not true that the PF has used the payments to farmers for their maize as a strategy to hoodwink farmers in order to get votes adding that paying of farmers for their grain has always been a government program that should not be politicized.
He said government will continue paying farmers their money as they sold their maize to government.
Mr. Kabimba has, however, stated that as party Secretary General he does not know of a businessman named Shawi Fawaz who is alleged to have been sponsoring the parties’ alleged violence acts in Mufumbwe.
Meanwhile, North Western Province Police Commissioner Eugene Sibote has described the political atmosphere in Mufumbwe as peaceful.
Mr. Sibote told ZANIS in a telephone interview that it was sad that information is being manufactured to insinuate incidences that the police have not come across.
Reacting to a statement from Mufumbwe MMD campaign manager Newton Samakayi, Mr. Sibote said it was not true that the police have been reluctant to react to violence acts allegedly being perpetrated by the PF but was quick to act on the opposition.
“Police in Mufumbwe have only recorded one incident,” Kabimba said. ”That happened when MMD members reported that they were attacked but later refused to take the police to the scene of the alleged violence so that police could establish the truth.”
He said the Mufumbwe by-election campaigns have been peaceful adding that all parties contesting the by-election have conducted their campaigns in a peaceful manner.
Other rights organizations monitoring the bye-elections have observed a much different picture. The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) recently released a report documenting numerous instances of ruling party cadres beating opposition party workers and repeated threats of violence.
And commenting on the chopper that landed in Kalengwa and raised suspicion of malpractices, Mr. Sibote said the only plane that landed in Kalengwa on October 11, this year was a chopper that carried Vice President Guy Scott when he went to witness the filing nominations by candidates in Mufumbwe.
He said Mufumbwe does not have the airport facilities that can accommodate the size of the helicopter commonly used by the Vice President.
Movement for Multiparty Democracy in Mufumbwe have accused the ruling Patriotic Front party of using underhand methods to hoodwink voters in the forthcoming by-election.
MMD Mufumbwe Campaign Manager Newton Samakayi has told ZANIS in a statement that the Patriotic Front party has sponsored violence through Shawi Fawzi because they are not prepared for the by-election.
Mr. Samakayi further stated that the era of deceit belonged to the 2011 adding that the time for realism has come to North Western Province.
He further said people of North Western Province will not entertain lies as they deserved to be part of the wide spectrum of the development process of the country.
Mr. Samakayi has further given the Zambia Police 24 hours to assume responsibility failure to which a citizen’s arrest shall be effected by his party on any one found wanting in violence.