.HAKAINDE

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE and CATHERINE NYIRENDA –

UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) yesterday lodged a complaint with the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) alleging discrepancies in the released results of some constituencies.
UPND Presidential candidate, Hakainde Hichilema with other officials from his party were locked up in a meeting with ECZ officials, PF officials and others for more than an hour to address the complaints.
Mr Hichilema told journalists after the meeting that his party was concerned about the irregularities of results from some constituencies.
“There are many issues of the results we have discussed which affect the integrity of the final results and it is important that they are not released until the concerns are addressed,” Mr Hichilema said.
He said if the concerns were not addressed they could create problems and affect the credibility of the results.
He disclosed that the parties and ECZ had agreed that no results would be announced until the complaints lodged were addressed.
He said that the duration of when the results would be released was not an issue but more anarchy would be created if wrong results were declared
When asked by journalists if he was not concerned that the move would delay the release of results, Mr Hichilema said” ?What do you prefer? Wrong results or correct results, we have already waited for so long”.
PF secretary general Davies Chama who was part of the meetings told journalists that the meeting was called by UPND because of suspicions of some discrepancies in the results announced.
He said that PF was concerned with the delay in the announcement of results and this caused a lot of misinformation especially on social media where people were using fabricated figures.
Mr Chama appealed to ECZ to speed up the announcement of the results.
Meanwhile, ECZ chairperson Ireen Mambilima explained that she held a meeting with UPND and the PF to iron out the issues of concern.
Ms Justice Mambilima said among issues raised were wrong results being broadcast by ZNBC.
Other issues were same results being repeated in other constituencies.
Political parties also wanted to have electronic copies of results and those from the polling stations.
It was agreed that they are given for the last 39 constituencies and that two people per political party would participate in voter verification .