. Akufuna

AS innocent citizens are registering to vote during the 2016 elections, we wonder if they know that they might be hapless victims of political violence from some misguided opposition members.
We say this considering the number of incidents that happened in Lubansenshi and Solwezi West.
Despite warnings from political party leadership and the Police, the trend has continued to escalate usually leaving innocent people dead or injured.
In the past the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has gone as far as sounding a stern warning to political parties that it would close the campaign period before the stated date if parties involved failed to restrain their cadres from engaging in violent activities.
We can quote ECZ public relations manager Chris Akufuna who once said that elections are the only way of choosing leaders to political office and should not be synonymous with violence.
Mr Akufuna said it is the duty of all political parties participating in elections to ensure that their candidates, cadres and supporters abide by the electoral code of conduct.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has many fine attributes and can be commended for some of its operations such as its handling of the voting processes, voter registration and so on.
It is disheartening then to note that despite such counselling from organisations like the ECZ, some misguided opposition leaders want to take the law in their own hands.
What some opposition members should understand is that by turning polling stations into war zones, they are chasing away voters and thus disenfranchising them.
A major concern is violence that results from criminal behaviour, hooliganism and intimidation that tends to dog activities related to elections.
This atmosphere of violence disenfranchises many Zambians who are put off by this kind of behaviour since a number of them are law abiding citizens.
We have said it before and we are saying it for the umpteenth time, political violence should not be tolerated in any civilised society since it belongs to the Stone Age.
It is clear that the current crop of some opposition political leaders have forgone the spirit of the One Zambia, One nation slogan which has kept the 72 tribes of Zambia united over the past decades.
Whatever tactics political parties are using to win elections, violence is never and will never be a campaign method in any multiparty state.
Since we have been covering politics in this newspaper, we are better placed to know who the perpetrators of political violence are.
We are laying the blame on the opposition who can’t accept being outside the corridors of power.
We are thus calling upon them to address their supporters and counsel them on adhering to the provisions of the electoral code of conduct.
Opposition political parties and other stakeholders must therefore make it a priority to sensitise their members on the dangers of violence because, if not contained, it can escalate and create protracted violent conflict.
The Zambia Police Service has sounded the clarion call and we feel every sensible politician perpetrating violence during elections should not complain when the long arm of the law visits him or her.
The  Police should be rigid, just and professional in their investigations in order to make arrests of bad eggs tarnishing Zambia’s democracy.
Political violence must be halted at all costs since it is taking us back to the Stone Age.