By Ulande Nkomesha,
UPND chairperson for elections Gary Nkombo says the country needs explanation as to why unknown cargo was transported together with ballot papers.
During the arrival of the last consignment of ballot papers, unknown cargo was seen being offloaded from the Emirates flight which was assigned to transport ballot papers. Upon opening the unknown cargo, it was discovered that some of it were batteries and mobile phones, while other boxes could not be opened.
Speaking to journalists, Saturday, Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) acting chief elections officer Royd Katongo said the Commission was also waiting for an explanation from Emirates.
“I think that matter has been addressed from the time we were beginning the verification, the Commission talked to that. The Chairperson had guided as to how we will proceed as ECZ. The brief summary is that even us as the Commission we are an interested party in this matter. Emirates are looking into the matter, they are investigating the matter, they are the ones who carried the cargo. As a Commission we are also waiting for Emirates to come back to us as [to] what had transpired,” said Katongo.
Speaking during a press briefing, Sunday, Nkombo said ECZ owed the Zambian people an explanation on the matter.
“The ECZ owes this country an explanation and this time we are writing a letter to Emirates, the airline that brought the ballot papers, for them to explain how cargo that was not on the manifest could find itself in the boxes where the ballot papers are. Where did these phones come from? Who is the consigner? Who is the consignee? What is the purpose of these particular gadgets that came without a document trail? What are they for? Could it be true and I hate to be an advocate of doom, what we heard is that they intend to do what the Ugandans did to shut the internet on the day of the elections so that the election’s management of results is tempered with. We would like to send a warning to ECZ, those phones must be displayed by all interested parties and quarantined very far away from this election process,” Nkombo said.
Nkombo said the gadgets that were transported together with the ballot papers should be burnt in full view of the public.
“These are the things that bring consternation in a nation, these are the things that bring anxiety in a country. Judge Chulu, this is basically on you bwana, whose phones are those? What are they for? How come there is no explanation about these phones? Remember you can fool people sometimes but you can never fool people every time. Every dog has its own day. You have manipulated the country for far too long. The things are now coming back around, the chickens are now coming to roost,” Nkombo said.
“We demand an explanation from the ECZ, tell us who those gadgets are for and we demand that they must be displayed in a public place and be burnt. They must be burnt! We are not going to an election which has already been decided. We are informed that there are also welding machines in there, did they go for a business trip? Zambians wake up! ECZ is using you. You must explain to us Judge Chulu, Nshindano, if those things are yours for domestic use, why did you consign them with public materials? This is what causes consternation. We are not going to take this with our arms folded, we want answers, we want to give us answers tomorrow. We cannot sleep on a matter such as this one. You are putting this country in harm’s way.”
Meanwhile UPND national youth spokesperson Gilbert Liswaniso accused the Zambia police of not thoroughly investigating the violence that happened in Kanyama on Friday that left two PF supporters dead.
“I want to make it very clear that among the two people who died the day before yesterday, Danny Chingangu is our member. Danny Chingangu has been our member, our vice security chairman for Chinika Ward. The PF they know, the police know. Two weeks ago, Chingangu was arrested at City Market. The records are there and he was given a case of malicious conduct. Yesterday, madam Charity Katanga was quick to say things which are not there. What happened in Kanyama the day before yesterday, it was not the UPND that went to the PF camp, our two members went to the market to go and buy relish so that they could take to the campaign centre. Then they were followed by eight or nine PF youths,” said Liswaniso.
“When they reached near our campaign centre that is how our members were beaten. The good part of it is that the community came together and protected our members. When they were defeated, they went back again to recruit people to go and attack back. In that process our member was killed. Even the police who took those bodies are aware of what happened. Yesterday Charity Katanga was quick to arrest our members than investigating the matter.- News Diggers!