By JULIUS PHIRI, SYLVIA MWEETWA and MOFFAT CHAZINGWA –

WIDESPREAD apathy characterised voting in the five constituencies that held by-elections yesterday.
However, voting was held under peaceful atmosphere without any reports of political violence.
Voting took place in Kasenengwa and Vubwi constituencies in Chipata, Mkushi South, Solwezi Central and Zambezi West constituencies.
The voting in Solwezi Central kicked off on a relatively low note with a number of polling stations recording unimpressive numbers of voters after opening.
A check by the Times just after polling stations had opened in the morning found most stations had few or no voters at all waiting to vote.
At Mushitala polling station which opened at 06:15 hours, less than 10 people were found waiting for the centre to open.
At Zambia Compound polling station situated at Solwezi Trades Institute, 79 out of the registered 6,043 voters had voted by 06:55 hours.
The situation persisted with only 1,018 having cast their vote when the station closed at 18:00 hours.
The situation was the same at Kyawama polling station, which is the biggest centre with 7,892 registered voters, but less than 10 people had voted in the first hour of opening and 1,114 had voted by 17:30.
The story was the same in other voting centres such as Tumvwang’anai where 192 people out of 5,736 registered voters had cast their ballots by 07:36 hours, and similarly at Kimiteto where the centre had by 08:20 hours seen a paltry 53 people voting out of the registered 1,717.
Kikombe polling station with 2,825 registered voters and Mitukutuku with registered voters of 500 had seen 264 and 101 people voting by 11:30 hours, respectively.
Solwezi District electoral officer Ronald Daka said in an interview that voter turnout was disappointing. Meanwhile, Police detained a presiding officer at one of the polling stations for allegedly making polling agents sign the declaration forms before the conclusion of the elections.
Mr Daka said the forms were supposed to be signed after closing of voting but Paul Samapimbi, presiding officer at Kyawama polling station made all the agents sign the document earlier.
He was handed over to the police and was immediately relieved of his duties.
Newton Malwa of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF), Dawson Kafwaya of the United Party for National Development, Mary Katiki of United National Independence Party (UNIP), Nathan Mulonga of Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and MMD’s Lucky Mulusa, contested the seat.
In Kasenengwa, 201 out of 866 registered voters had cast their vote at Chawa polling station by 11:20 hours.
The Chanyumbu Catholic Church polling station delayed to open because of a problem with the official date stamp.
However, presiding officer Chimwemwe Nkunika indicated that there would be an extension to the voting period to make up for lost time.
At Mtaya Primary School, voting started on a good note with more than 334 voters out of a registered 1,301 casting their vote by 12:23 hours, while at Chimwa polling station situated at Kapoko Primary School, at least 110 out of 904 had voted.
At Katondo polling station which has 815, about 262 had already voted by 11:02 hours, with Chiparamba polling station, which has 1,897 voters recording 600 by 13:00 hours.
One hundred and eighty-three had voted at Chisambala polling station by 12:30 hours out of 624 registered voters.
Low turnouts were equally recorded in the morning at Kasenengwa tsetse office polling station, Nkhuni Village, Chinjala, Chimunzi, Chipembele, Madzimawe, Gundani and Kamanga Farms.
The seat was contested by Gideon Zulu of the PF, Timothy Nyirenda of UPND, Khumbiza Daka of UNIP and Ms Kalima who was re-contesting the seat under the MMD.
In Vubwi, Kabvumo polling station by mid-morning had recorded 154 voters out of the registered 547, and the situation was not different at Vubwi polling station.
At Mbozi polling station, 179 people had cast their vote out of 989 voters by 09:00 hours.
Five parliamentary hopefuls, namely, PF’s Margaret Miti, MMD’s Eustarckio Kazonga, Lucas Phiri of UNIP, Alfonso Phiri of UPND and Charles Nyoka were contesting the seat which fell vacant after the nullification of Dr Kazonga’s election.
Mkushi South equally had a low turnout from the 12,000 registered voters in the constituency.
However, returning officer Kelly Mwebe expressed hope when voting started that the situation would improve as the day progressed.
Thirty people had voted at Chikupili polling station out of the 1,200 registered voters by 06:20, while at Busa, just over 40 had voted out of 635 by 08:00 hours.
The Mkushi South by-election was being contested by Davies Chisopa of the PF, MMD’s Sydney  Chisanga and UPND’s Agnes Ng’andu.
The Mkushi South seat fell vacant after the Supreme Court nullified the election results of Sydney Chisanga of the opposition MMD for electoral malpractices.
Mr Mwebe said  that  the  final  results  would  only  be  known today because of  Chingombe, Chipaba and Mwalala polling stations situated in Luano Valley, whose  election  materials  would have to be air-lifted.
In Zambezi West, ZANIS reports that voting at Chinyingi polling started on a good note with the station recording 162 voters of the 420 registered by 12:00 hours.
Presiding officer David Mbumba, however, said some voters were not appearing on the voter’s register despite turning up with voter’s and national registration cards.
Charles Kakoma of the UPND, Christabel Ngimbu of the PF, Priscar Kucheka for MMD, Hastings Kanguya of National Restoration Party, Kayombo Chilila of the Green Party and Mark Kachongo of the FDD contested the seat.