Fred M’membe writes…
I am very worried about the future of our multiparty democracy.
From what I have personally observed in my participation in the August 12, 2021 general elections and the by-elections that have followed, our electoral system is too flawed to guarantee us peaceful, free and fair elections.
Our elections are being won with the use of violence, intimidation, abuse of government resources (motor vehicles, civil servants, fertilizers, social cash transfers). I witnessed all these in Kaumbwe, Mwansabombwe and in Milenge.
And yesterday our members were attacked in Kabwata by ruling party cadres in the presence of a Diamond TV reporter (she was narrowly missed by a bottle).
Our current ruling party, in all these aspects, are not different from their predecessors – in some respects they are even worse.
Without these malpractices, abuses and violence being stopped or significantly reduced there’s no way they would have won the Sokontwe Ward by-election in Milenge and the Lufubu Ward by-election in Mwansabombwe.
But for how long are others going to put up with all this? Should this be accepted as a norm?