STOP YOUR LAWLESSNESS OF GETTING VOTERS PERSONAL DETAILS, MUCHELEKA ACCUSES CHITIMUKULU
By Patson Chilemba
Paramount chief Chitimukulu of the Bemba people of Northern Province must stop the lawlessness of collecting personal details of those registering to vote, says opposition UPND deputy secretary general Patrick Mucheleka.
And Mucheleka said the opposition party has instructed their members to begin effecting citizens arrest on headmen collecting personal details of voters and foreigners allegedly being issued with voters cards.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Mucheleka said the party was receiving disturbing reports from Northern Province, where “one of the chiefs who has chosen to be a PF cadre has ordered chiefs and headmen under him to be getting details from people registering to vote.”
He alleged that they were checking for people’s National Registration Cards and the serial numbers on the voters cards, something he said was illegal.
Asked if he was referring to Chitimukulu, Mucheleka said: “Yes I am. And he must stop what he is doing. This is the man who keeps crying all the time, no the opposition wants to remove me, no one wants to remove him. He’s doing a lot of things that are against the law, and this time around let people exercise their right to vote. We want ECZ to extend the registration period, they will not be able to capture the 9 million thy are talking about. But even with that we would like to.”
Mucheleka charged that, while it was appreciated for chiefs and other stakeholders to get involved in urging people to register as voters, collecting personal details was out of bounds.
“Where do you want to take those details?” he asked, adding that the PF’s attempts to rig the elections would not work. “You know out of desperation I have just given you the case in Northern Province where they are using Chitimukulu who has ordered his subordinates chiefs to be collecting personal details of the people who are registering, it’s wrong. And then in border towns especially in Luapula, Northern and Eastern Provinces. In Eastern Province we have reports that they are registering under age children…Mozambicans, Malawians…Luapula they are also registering under age children and they are also registering Congolese.”
Mucheleka said the PF had clearly failed to govern, and they were now recruiting foreigners to vote in the 2021 general elections.
“What we are doing as UPND is that we have ordered, we have directed our people to begin to conduct citizens arrests in border areas, including any headman who will be collecting personal details of the people who are registering as voters,” said Mucheleka. “And in border towns we have also ordered our people to effect citizens arrests of those foreigners who are coming to register as voters. It’s wrong and it must stop. It is illegal, it’s against the law. If must come come to an end.”
Efforts to talk to Chitimukulu failed owing to failure to get through on his mobile line.
-Daily Revelation