AT WHAT POINT DID MUNDUBILE LEAD HICHILEMA TO CLAIM RIGGING?
We are wondering whether we are in the same Zambia or a different one, because what exactly are we missing?
During the announcement of the General Election results, at what point did Brian Mundubile lead Hakainde Hichilema in terms of numbers for him to claim that the election was rigged?
And, more importantly, how can one convincingly claim that an election was rigged when the official results show a margin of more than 1.2 million votes?
We have observed that a lot of Zambians are being made to believe that the General Election was rigged.
But when they are asked a simple question, at what point do you believe the election was rigged? the answer often comes back to one argument, that Brian Mundubile declared himself the winner based on his Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT).
Now, Zambians must understand what actually happened.
After Mr. Mundubile declared himself the winner, he then denied that he had declared victory. Instead, he maintained that his PVT showed that he was leading.
But when he was asked about the results in his possession, it later emerged from his own address that he did not have the complete set of results. He instead called on the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to announce the official results.
But here is the question Zambians should be asking:
If Mr. Mundubile never led Mr. Hichilema in the official results from the beginning to the end, what exactly was stolen from him?
What Mr. Mundubile and his camp appear to be challenging is not necessarily the claim that they won the election outright. Their argument appears to be that, although Mr. Hichilema won, he did not cross the constitutionally required 50 percent plus one threshold.
That distinction is critical.
The Church Monitoring Group has reported that President Hakainde Hichilema won the General Election with more than 56 percent, while Brian Mundubile received about 42 percent.
Transparency International Zambia has also stated that President Hakainde Hichilema won the election, while the Electoral Commission of Zambia officially declared him the winner.
So the biggest question remains:
What exactly is Brian Mundubile and his camp seeking to petition?
Which victory was allegedly stolen from them if, from the beginning of the official tally to the final declaration, Mr. Mundubile never overtook Mr. Hichilema?
Zambians must learn to separate political propaganda from verifiable events.
A presidential election petition is a serious constitutional process. It should therefore be based on concrete evidence capable of demonstrating how the alleged irregularities affected the result not simply on political claims, suspicion or the fact that a candidate disagrees with the final outcome.
Until then, Zambians deserve facts, evidence and clarity not narratives that leave citizens believing that a candidate was leading when the publicly announced figures tell a different story.
– Zambian Watch News.