Call for peace ahead of Zambian polls
Zambia’s top religious leaders said the political violence witnessed during the 2016 election campaign was unprecedented in the history of local elections.
|||Gaborone - The verification process of ballot papers which will be used in the upcoming Zambian presidential election set for August 11 has been completed, the electoral supervisory body has announced.
On August 11, Zambians will go to the polls to elect a new president, parliament and local council representatives. In a statement posted on its website on Monday, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) said the representatives of all political parties participating in the presidential poll had participated in the verification process.
No complaints or anomalies were raised by any of the political party representatives. The ECZ said it had since started the verification process for ballot papers to be used in the local government elections. At local government level, voters will elect new councillors, mayors and council chairpersons for all rural and urban local authorities.
Meanwhile, one of the country’s top religious leaders has warned that Zambia risked being engulfed by political fighting and social strife unless political leaders avoided making inflammatory statements that incited hatred during election campaigns.
Addressing residents who congregated in Lusaka on Sunday to pray for peace in the election period, Anglican Church of Zambian leader Bishop William Chombo said the political violence witnessed during the 2016 election campaign was unprecedented in the history of local elections.
“This country can go into flames due to careless language. What we know is that politics is just a vehicle to identify who are our leaders should be. Politics in itself is not an end, but rather a means to deliver development. What we have seen in this year’s election is the kind of political violence we have never witnessed before.
“People should not be hacking each other over nothing, what people want is to choose a leader who will move the country forward. That person can come from Patriotic Front, United Party for National Development, Forum for Democracy and Development, Movement for Multiparty Democracy, or any other. The goal should be to develop Zambia,” he said.
Bishop Chombo said voters should deny the politicians a chance to turn the country into yet another African war zone, just to fulfil their “selfish and greedy” intentions. Eight political parties will field candidates for the presidential, parliamentary and local government elections, which are set to take place on Thursday next week.
African News Agency