‘No Police deployed as polling agents’

Öas Brown Kasaro rubbishes reports of the ECZ ferrying police officers to Kawambwa with the intention of using them as polling agents, says the officers are in the Constituency only for security purposes

By NATION REPORTER

THE Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has denied reports that it has, in collusion with the UPND dispatched several contingents of police officers in Kawambwa with the intention of deploying them as polling agents or presiding officers in a bid to rig the parliamentary vote.
Brown Kasoro, the Chief Electoral Officer said it was not true that the Commission in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security had unleashed police officers on Kawambwa to serve as agents for the electoral body.
There has been speculations that the ruling party in collaboration with the commission had reportedly dispatched police officers to Kawambwa to be deployed as polling agents and presiding officers instead of the traditional use of civil servants such as teachers and nurses.
Brian Mundubile, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament when contacted confirmed that the Tonse Alliance had received credible information that police officers had been dispatched and will be deployed as poling agents instead of the traditional use of teachers.
Traditionally, teachers and other government officers have been the ones to man elections while police officers perform their duties of preserving peace, law and order.
“It is not true that we have dispatched police officers. I think stakeholders will understand that the role of the police is to be at every polling station. Police officers are never inside the police station,” Mr Kasoro said.
He said the Zambia Police Service exists to maintain law and order and enforce the law.
“We only have one or two police officers outside the polling station to maintain law and order. I think political parties on the ground had the opportunity to look at the people who were deployed as polling staff. Local people will be available to verify the election results,” Mr Kasoro said. And Collins Maoma, the UPND national chairperson has also denied the allegations that the governing party had instructed the police command to transport most of its young officers to Kawambwa with the aim of using them as poling agents.
Sources within ECZ have however revealed that contingents of State Police have since arrived in Kawambwa and would be deployed as polling agents and presiding officers in a bid to rig the Kawambwa parliamentary by-election, which the ruling party has realized there is no chance of winning the seat.
“The ECZ working together with the UPND have have dispatched police officers from here (Lusaka) to Kawambwa who will be deployed as polling agents. They (ECZ and UPND) used the same tactics on the Kawambwa Council chairmanship. And for the parliamentary by-election, they are determined to run it into ECL (former President Edgar Lungu) so that people should begin to think he is not a factor in Zambian politics,” the sources said.
The sources have also revealed that the UPND have mooted their Plan B for the Kawambwa by-election in which they have resolved to buy off Tonse Alliance polling agents in their desperate bid to win the seat.
“So let them (Tonse Alliance) also just put MPs as agents otherwise they will steal. These people should not win. They (police) have just left for Kawambwa and we hope the Plan B is about to protect people’s choice and voice,” the sources said.
And Mr Mundubile, the Patriotic Front (PF) Mporokosos law maker, who is currently in Kawambwa has confirmed having received credible intelligence reports that the ECZ in collusion with the UPND have raved the gear of rigging the vote to create a false perception that the ruling party has remained popular.
“There is a lot of activity here as we speak. We have a lot of strange people in the constituency. We have credible information from within the ECZ that local teachers, who have traditionally been deployed as polling agents and presiding officers have been left out. We have in their place strange faces…men in suits who are not from here. We have been reliably been informed that they (ECZ and UPND) have dispatched contingents of police officers who they intend to deploy as poling agents and presiding officers,” Mr Mundubile said.
Mr Mundubile has however warned that the imported poling agents will not be allowed and that the people of Kawambwa had been alerted about the strange people in their communities. He said there is a lot of panic in the UPND because should the Tonse candidate win, it shall be deemed as the victory for Zambia’s Sixth President, Edgar Lungu.
“There is a lot of panic in the UPND about the Kawambwa seat. They are attempting to breal all the electoral laws in the book just for this seat as they did with the Kabushi and Kwacha seats which were stolen in broad day light. There fear is that should we win, which we are going to, the victory shall be deemed to be for President Lungu and they cannot stomach that,” Mr Mundubile said.