UPND’S INTIMIDATION TACTICS WILL NOT WORK IN ITALA – HON FUBE
…as the PF unearths UPND’s conniving with the Chief to bully poll staff
Lunga… Thursday January 19, 2023 (SMART EAGLES)
Chilubi Member of Parliament Hon Mulenga Fube says the UPND has developed a trend of using methods to intimidate PF candidates during campaigns as a way of winning an election.
Hon Fube alleges that the PF received information that UPND caders imported in Lunga District were demanding for handcuffs from the police deployed in the area to man the Itala Ward by-election.
He has told journalists that this is the same method they used in Chilubi’s Kanama Ward in the last by-election where they arrested the PF candidate and the District Chairperson and only released them the following morning when the electorate had started voting.
He said the PF is aware of every step the UPND is taking saying they will be exposed and embarrassed.
“When we received this information of the UPND caders demanding for handcuffs from the police, we knew exactly what they wanted to do to our candidate here in Itala Ward. This is because it happened in Chilubi and I am talking from experience. Our candidate together with our Chilubi District Chairperson were arrested by a minister and his caders and taken to police on flimsy grounds. These people are determined to win elections at all cost using any form of intimidation and violence. But we won’t allow them,” he said.
“They are breaking the law at will and police are reluctant to act on these matters. Since we came here (Itala) they have caused violence because this is the only method they know of intimidating their opponents.”
Meanwhile, the PF has further alleged that the UPND and the Chief have continued to bullying presiding officers at the two poling stations.
“We have been reliably informed that the UPND and Chief Kasoma Lunga have continued to bully the presiding officer Emmanuel Chisala for Itala School poling station and Mwelwa Nyense presiding officer Angela Shimete who is a relative to the UPND Campaign Manager Daniel Chisala in order to manipulate the outcome of the election,” said impeccable sources within the former ruling party.