COLONEL Panji Kaunda has asked the Electoral Commission of Zambia to do its work as mandated by the Constitution.
In an interview yesterday, Col Panji said the Zambian people had spoken and that ECZ should announce the results.
“Let the ECZ do its work as mandated by the Constitution. The duty of the ECZ is to run an election and announce the results. Elections have been done and the people have spoken. Their role now is to announce who has won and who has lost,” he said. “Those who want to contest the elections can only do so after the results are announced. Yes, they can dispute the results but they cannot stop us from hearing who have won. Suppose they say, the one who has lost is the one who has won, what can they do?”
Col Panji said the outcome should be known and those that are not agreeable can go to court.
“Zambians, this is a trap that Lungu and his cronies wants to trap the Zambians to go to the street then they will unleash the army and kill our people,” he said. “We have done our job as citizens. Let’s keep calm. Go to our houses, listen to the radio and wait for results. Nothing will change, the country has spoken. Let’s keep peace and calm and talk to our youths. Zambians have done their job as citizens. They have defended their vote, now ECZ must do their job.”
Col Panji urged the UPND members to start celebrating quietly until they are told that Hakainde Hichilema has officially won.
“Results are very positive so far. People are speaking very loudly from Chililabombwe to Livingstone. Even their so-called stronghold has backfired. They tried to inflate the figures but it has gone back to them. The UPND alliance has won a number of seats,” said Col Panji.
And UPND deputy national chairperson Andrew Banda urged the PF to graciously concede defeat the way Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Rupiah Banda did.
Andrew said it was clear that the UPND was far much ahead of the PF.
“Zambians don’t like violence and corruption. Zambians don’t like unemployment. Zambians used to have more money in the pockets than what was promised by the PF,” he said. “Let them do introspection. There is too much that has gone wrong. We are asking them to emulate late
president Kaunda who conceded defeat to president [Frederick] Chiluba when he won. We are asking them to emulate president Rupiah Banda who graciously handed over power to president [Michael] Sata when time came and time has come for them to hand over power peacefully for the sake of this country.”
Andrew said the UPND would get seven seats in Eastern Province.
“They relied so much on the Copperbelt. They relied so much on Lusaka. They relied so much on our province, Eastern. So far, we have managed to get a number of seats. So far, the indications are that we will manage to get a minimum of seven seats,” he said. “Some of them have already been announced. What we expect is for the Electoral Commission to keep briefing the people about what is happening. Zambians will not accept any result other than what is patterning on the ground.”
Andrew said this year’s election was not about UPND and Hakainde Hichilema but the people of Zambia who have been seriously affected by the economic status of the country.
“The people have been affected by the excessive debt by the Patriotic Front, the people who have been excessively affected by the massive corruption by this government, high prices of commodities which include fertiliser, petrol, cooking oil,” said Andrew. “These things are being felt at household level. I can tell you that in 1991 there was a revolution like this but this one is more than that.”