ECZ CANES MILES SAMPA
THE Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has described as misleading and unfortunate social media posts in which Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa accused it of having established a fake polling station on Lilayi road for yesterday’s Chawama parliamentary by-election.
In a statement last evening, chief electoral officer Brown Kasaro demanded that Mr Sampa should apologise for the false allegations, failure to which legal proceedings will be instituted against him.
Mr Kasaro said ECZ is committed to a transparent, credible and inclusive electoral process and urged all stakeholders to act responsibly in the interest of peace and democratic integrity.
And earlier after visiting the alleged fake polling stations, Mr Kasaro said the centres Mr Sampa referred to have existed for a long time and are gazetted for the commission.
He said Mr Sampa’s statement was misleading, false and unfortunate as it had potential to endanger the lives of polling staff operating there.
“The commission wishes to categorically state that we have two polling stations along Lilayi road and, as we speak, I am standing right beside them and these are duly gazetted polling stations,” he said.
“This is not the first time they have been used for an election and these are duly gazetted and operational [polling stations],” Mr Kasaro said.
He said Chawama Constituency had 111 polling stations for the by-election, and that those Mr Sampa referred to are part of the number.
“So the allegations attributed to Mr Sampa are totally false and misleading, and also very unfortunate to the extent that they are endangering the lives of our polling staff,” Mr Kasaro said.
ZDM