By Thomas Ngala
TONSE Alliance spokesperson Sean Tembo says the opposition coalition now knows the two methods the United Party for National Development (UPND) used to steal votes in the Kawambwa and Pambashe parliamentary by-elections.
And Tembo has boasted that the Petauke Central by-election victory is a well deserved one for the opposition coalition.
And Tembo has laid bare the two dark methods the United Party for National Development (UPND), in collusion with the Electoral Commission of Zambia and the police, has been using to steal votes from the opposition in by-elections.
Featuring on Prime TV’s ‘Matters Arising’ live interview Saturday, Tembo, the president for the Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP), said the victory was not the opposition’s first.
He said the alliance also won in the other two by-elections but the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) had allegedly stolen the votes.
“It’s a very well-deserved victory, although I wish to correct you; although I wish to correct you that it is not our first victory. It is our third victory because our first victory was in Kawambwa where the election was stolen from us through the use of violence by the ruling UPND party,” Tembo said.
,“And the second one was in Pambashe where again through the use of violence and intimidation of our polling agents and election monitors, our victory was stolen from us. Then, in Petauke, despite all the efforts of the ruling party to try and intimidate us to steal our victory, the people in the community actually rose up and assisted us to actually defend and protect our vote. And we are very thankful to the people of Pateuke in that regard.”
Tembo said the margin by which the UPND beat the opposition in Kawambwa and Pambashe should not fool people to think their victories were genuine.
He explained how the UPND “steals” votes in by-elections.
Tembo said the ruling party capitalises on illiterate the electorate to steal the votes.
“When someone is given an opportunity to steal, they are not going to limit themselves to say ‘I will steal this much but not that much’. They will steal as much as they can get away with. Essentially, when you look at the UPND formula for stealing votes from the opposition, it is twofold. One aspect is where they capitalise on the illiterate voters, those who can’t read and write, whereby when they enter the polling station, they are then ushered to a UPND designated person to assist them [to cast the ballot],” he said.
“Now, when you look at the Electoral Code of Conduct, specifically paragraph 26.1, what it says is that for voters who are illiterate, who are not able to cast the vote by themselves, who need assistance, the procedure is that the voter is supposed to be asked first of all whether they have come with any relative or friend to the polling station who can help them. If they have, that person should be given preference.”
He explained that if such people have not been accompanied by any relative or close friend, they ought to be asked if there is anyone in the room they would be comfortable with to help them to cast the vote.
“And then, when the voter identifies the person to assist them, and they go to a voting booth, any political party participating in that by-election which has polling agents present in that station, they are supposed to be given an opportunity to go and observe how that illiterate voter is actually being assisted,” he said.
“Because, when it is just the person assisting and the illiterate voter, the issue that arises is whether the person assisting is executing the wishes of the voter or not because the voter is illiterate.”
Tembo said under the UPND, illiterate voters were not being asked if they had been accompanied by any family member or close relative but were given a UPND cadre planted inside for the purpose by the ruling party to “help” them.
“They don’t do that. They do not ask the voter whether there is anyone in the polling station who they feel comfortable to assist them with. They don’t do that. They immediately usher that voter to desk number three. So, desk number one, they check the voter’s card, and desk number two they issue the ballot paper, and then desk number three, that is where they position someone to actually assist that voter,” he said.
“Now, that person is a person appointed by the UPND. And when that person goes to assist the voter in the polling booth, they do not allow any other observer or polling agent to go and observe how the illiterate voter is being assisted.”
Tembo said this is the reason the ruling party got more votes in rural wards in Kawambwa as compared to urban ones and should therefore stop fooling itself that it had won.
“So, it is just the illiterate voter and a UPND appointed individual. So, what they then do, in my view, they do not execute the wishes of the illiterate voter. The illiterate voter will say I want to vote for the Tonse Alliance candidate, the NCP [National Congress Party] candidate, and then the person who is a UPND designated person just marks on the UPND candidate and the voter cannot distinguish which one is the NCP candidate and which one is the UPND candidate,” he said.
“When you look at the wards where UPND won, UPND lost in all the urban wards.”
The UPND has won the Pmabashe parliamentary by-election in Kawambwa District, Luapula Province through Justin Kapema while Tonse Alliance scooped the Petauke poll through Simon Banda of the NCP.
