• Mwanza

By SAM PHIRI –

The Christian Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG) deployed 1,108 trained and accredited monitors countrywide for the 2015 presidential election.
CCMG chairperson Pukuta Mwanza said during a Press briefing in Lusaka that the monitors comprise 105 roving monitors, 300 general monitors and 703 Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) monitors.
Reverend Mwanza said the PVT monitors were deployed to a carefully selected nationally representative sample of 703 polling streams located at 501 polling stations in every province, district and constituency.
He said the PVT monitors report immediately by sending in observer reports throughout the day via coded text messages.
Meanwhile, Rev Mwanza has condemned the unsubstantiated and alarming statements made by some political leaders and the incidents of political violence that were recorded in some places during campaigns for Tuesday’s election.
He said Zambians should address such issues so that similar incidents do not occur in the 2016 presidential elections.
He has since appealed to all candidates and political parties to publicly call for calm and restraint on the part of their supporters during the collation process and announcement of results.
Rev. Mwanza has since urged Zambians regardless of their political affiliation to remain peaceful and respect the rights of others.
The CCMG comprises four faith-based organisations namely the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) and the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC).