WHICH GEN 20s DID YOU USE TO DECLARE YOURSELF WINNER?: A RESPONSE TO THE TONSE ALLIANCE STATEMENT
I have listened carefully to the statement issued by Hon. Makebi Zulu concerning the ongoing electoral process.
With respect, the lecture he has attempted to deliver to the UPND Alliance and the people of Zambia collapses under the weight of his own argument. Hon. Makebi Zulu says that the election should not be declared until the Gen 20 forms have been verified. He has gone further and impliedly alleged that the UPND could have manufactured Gen 20 forms. Those are his allegations. We reject them. There is no exercise within the UPND Alliance to manufacture Gen 20 forms.
What the Electoral Commission of Zambia has been doing is commendable. They have meticulously been verifying results and ensuring that the votes cast by the people of Zambia are properly accounted for. However, Hon. Makebi Zulu’s own argument raises a question which he and the Tonse Alliance must answer.
Hon. Brian Mundubile publicly declared that he had won the presidential election within hours of polling and said that his conclusion was based upon his Parallel Vote Tabulation, or PVT. Very well. Which Gen 20 forms did Brian Mundubile use to declare himself the winner? If the Tonse Alliance’s PVT was based upon polling station results, where did the underlying Gen 20 forms come from? How many Gen 20 forms had they collected when that declaration was made? From which polling stations? How had they transmitted them across the country within those few hours? How had they verified them? How many constituencies had been completely tabulated? What mathematical basis existed at that stage for declaring that Brian Mundubile had won a national presidential election
These questions become unavoidable because Hon. Makebi Zulu himself has now made the authenticity and verification of Gen 20 forms central to his argument. Hon. Brian Mundubile has become the most important person of interest and all investigative agencies must take keen interest so that he can help with investigations. .
You cannot tell Zambia today that Gen 20 forms must first be verified before a presidential result can be accepted, while avoiding the question of which verified Gen 20 forms your own candidate relied upon when he had already declared himself the winner. You cannot have two standards. If Gen 20 verification is indispensable today, it was indispensable when Brian Mundubile announced that he had won.
The circumstances therefore raise an even more serious question. If the Tonse Alliance could not reasonably have collected and verified sufficient authentic Gen 20 forms from across the country within those few hours, what documents or figures were feeding the PVT upon which that declaration of victory was made?
Given Hon. Makebi Zulu’s own allegation, his own insistence upon verification and his candidate’s extraordinarily early declaration of victory, it is entirely reasonable to ask whether the documents or figures underlying their own PVT require investigation. That is a question arising from the circumstances they themselves have created. If their Gen 20 forms are authentic, there should be no difficulty whatsoever in producing them and demonstrating their provenance.
Hon. Brian Mundubile should therefore voluntarily present to the appropriate investigative authorities the Gen 20 forms, PVT records and tabulations upon which he relied when he declared himself winner. Let him explain where they came from, when they were received and how they were verified. That would answer the question conclusively.
‘
Do not manufacture an allegation against the UPND Alliance and then demand that we disprove it. The burden belongs to the person making the allegation. The UPND Alliance has not declared President Hakainde Hichilema the winner of this election. We are waiting for the Electoral Commission of Zambia to complete its constitutional responsibility. That distinction matters.
The UPND knows opposition politics extremely well. It first contested a presidential election in 2001 under the late Anderson Mazoka and remained in opposition for almost 23 years before forming Government in 2021. President Hakainde Hichilema personally contested presidential elections in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2021. He lost five presidential elections before winning the sixth.
There were elections whose results he disputed. There were elections which ended up before the courts. There were arrests, detentions and political violence. Some of us personally experienced that political environment. We were removed from radio and television stations. We were arrested and detained for expressing political views.
Despite all of that, President Hichilema did not establish himself as the Electoral Commission of Zambia and declare himself President. That history makes today’s lecture particularly misplaced.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia must be allowed to complete its work. Political parties are entitled to protect their votes, collect polling station results, conduct their own tabulations, verify discrepancies and challenge anything they believe to be unlawful. What they cannot do is replace ECZ.
During this electoral process, we have also received numerous reports of attempted vote buying, intimidation, interference with electoral processes and other activities which require investigation. Some of us witnessed events on the ground ourselves.
Records have been compiled containing names, places, circumstances and other relevant information. Those records are being submitted to the appropriate investigative institutions. Where criminal offences are disclosed by the evidence, the law must take its course.
Some members of our Alliance suffered physical violence. One of our fellow Alliance leaders is nursing serious injuries after being attacked by the Tonse Alliance thugs who invaded several polling stations in Luapula. Those matters must be investigated.
On the alleged disappearance of some of the members of the opposition, neither the Government nor the UPND Alliance can automatically be pronounced responsible because somebody has disappeared from public view. If there is evidence implicating the Government or any State institution, produce it and let the law deal with it.
I respectfully appeal to the Church and civil society to exercise the same responsibility demanded of political leaders. Their voices carry considerable moral authority in our Republic. That authority should be exercised in defence of truth, peace, due process and verified facts. Ask questions. Demand accountability. Defend constitutional rights. However, do not convert political allegations into established facts before the evidence has been examined.
The defence and security services must remain vigilant, professional and politically neutral throughout this sensitive period. They must protect the electoral process, electoral officials, citizens and public order within the law. Zambia has one institution constitutionally entrusted with conducting elections and declaring the result. That institution is the Electoral Commission of Zambia.
The UPND Alliance will respect that process. We expect the Tonse Alliance to do the same. If anyone possesses evidence of electoral malpractice, submit it to the appropriate institutions. If anyone disputes the eventual result, the Constitution and the laws of Zambia provide mechanisms for challenging an election.
For now, the central question arising from Hon. Makebi Zulu’s own statement remains unanswered. If Gen 20 forms must be verified before anybody can know the result, which verified Gen 20 forms did Brian Mundubile use when he declared himself the winner? Produce them.
Let ECZ count. Let ECZ verify. Let ECZ declare. Let Zambia remain peaceful.
Zambia Forward, TOGETHER in UNITY.
Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People (UPP)
UPND Alliance Partner