By Daily Revelation Editor
President Hakainde Hichilema has maintained his lead from the results that have been announced so far by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
By Press time yesterday, results from the 105 constituencies announced at the time, out of the available 226, put the President at 1056,812 against his closest rival Brian Mundubile at 830,841 votes.
We are yet to get a clear picture of what the final results would look like as the results from several areas of the country have not yet been announced.
But there are issues these results have brought to the fore even before the final outcome is know. The results have showed that President Hakainde Hichilema’s support on the Copperbelt has eroded considerably from what he obtained in the 2021 general elections.
However, the results have also indicated that the President and the ruling party have made significant inroads in provinces such as Eastern, Central and indeed the Northern provinces. They also reveal that the opposition have not made inroads in his strongholds in the Zambezi regions of Western, Southern and North-Western provinces. What may properly need to be established is if these regions are simply voting regional or the opposition have not made enough effort to spend considerable time and effort in terms of selling their messages in these areas.
Some have argued that Mundubile and his NRPUP did not make effort to even go and campaign in Southern Province for instance. They should have probably made effort to go there. However, they gave their own reasons for not going there as they feared what they said was potential violence in the area. We are not just sure if their going there would have made any significant difference because late former president Edgar Lungu campaigned in the region for instance, but he still was soundly defeated. But besides Mundubile not going there, there were other opposition leaders that campaigned in the region and they have actually received far fewer votes than what Mundubile has obtained. Mundubile also campaigned in Western and North-Western provinces but he has still soundly lost in those areas. Could it just be about the regional voting, or the five days allocated to the campaigns were simply not sufficient enough to properly canvass for votes in these areas? The answer could probably come from the two questions, or some other considerations maybe. But it’s a fact that the Zambezi areas have not voted in the same manner as the other regions of the country.
There are also elements that have arisen during this election period which may not bode well for a free and fair election, chief among them the decision by the Electoral Commission of Zambia to suspend the counting and announcement of election results around the whole country over a few incidences that were restricted to a few localities in the country. It also does not bode well that there was actual violence that ECZ has confirmed on record, which actually led to the theft of ballots.
During this same period, there have been reports of arrests, and assertions of abductions of some opposition leaders. Mundubile has claimed that he was shot at including some members of his team. But of course we can’t speak to the authenticity of those assertions as they have been followed by counter arguments from those in government dismissing the allegations as lies.
What is clear is that there will be enough to ponder upon once this period is over.
Related
By Daily Revelation Editor
President Hakainde Hichilema has maintained his lead from the results that have been announced so far by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
By Press time yesterday, results from the 105 constituencies announced at the time, out of the available 226, put the President at 1056,812 against his closest rival Brian Mundubile at 830,841 votes.
We are yet to get a clear picture of what the final results would look like as the results from several areas of the country have not yet been announced.
But there are issues these results have brought to the fore even before the final outcome is know. The results have showed that President Hakainde Hichilema’s support on the Copperbelt has eroded considerably from what he obtained in the 2021 general elections.
However, the results have also indicated that the President and the ruling party have made significant inroads in provinces such as Eastern, Central and indeed the Northern provinces. They also reveal that the opposition have not made inroads in his strongholds in the Zambezi regions of Western, Southern and North-Western provinces. What may properly need to be established is if these regions are simply voting regional or the opposition have not made enough effort to spend considerable time and effort in terms of selling their messages in these areas.
Some have argued that Mundubile and his NRPUP did not make effort to even go and campaign in Southern Province for instance. They should have probably made effort to go there. However, they gave their own reasons for not going there as they feared what they said was potential violence in the area. We are not just sure if their going there would have made any significant difference because late former president Edgar Lungu campaigned in the region for instance, but he still was soundly defeated. But besides Mundubile not going there, there were other opposition leaders that campaigned in the region and they have actually received far fewer votes than what Mundubile has obtained. Mundubile also campaigned in Western and North-Western provinces but he has still soundly lost in those areas. Could it just be about the regional voting, or the five days allocated to the campaigns were simply not sufficient enough to properly canvass for votes in these areas? The answer could probably come from the two questions, or some other considerations maybe. But it’s a fact that the Zambezi areas have not voted in the same manner as the other regions of the country.
There are also elements that have arisen during this election period which may not bode well for a free and fair election, chief among them the decision by the Electoral Commission of Zambia to suspend the counting and announcement of election results around the whole country over a few incidences that were restricted to a few localities in the country. It also does not bode well that there was actual violence that ECZ has confirmed on record, which actually led to the theft of ballots.
During this same period, there have been reports of arrests, and assertions of abductions of some opposition leaders. Mundubile has claimed that he was shot at including some members of his team. But of course we can’t speak to the authenticity of those assertions as they have been followed by counter arguments from those in government dismissing the allegations as lies.
What is clear is that there will be enough to ponder upon once this period is over.
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