By MELBOURNE MUSHITU –
THE Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has said it has not received any petition calling for the disqualification of the Patriotic Front (PF) from this year’s elections.
ECZ spokesperson Cris Akufuna said the Commission had not received any petition urging it to disqualify the PF from the general elections because of allegedly perpetuating violence.
This comes in the wake of online and media reports that have reported that United Democratic Front leader Miles Sampa and Emmanuel Mbambiko of Kitwe have petitioned the ECZ to disqualify the PF because of perpetuating violence.
“We have not received any petitions to disqualify the PF from contesting in the general elections. We will inform the nation once we receive the petition,” Mr Akufuna said in an interview yesterday.
Earlier when he featured on ‘Let the people talk’ programme on Radio Phoenix, Mr Akufuna said the Commission was also looking into a matter in which a PF campaign helicopter flew over a United Party for National Development campaign rally in Kuku Township last week.
He urged political parties to practise issue-based campaigns in order to maintain peace before, during and after the polls.
Mr Akufuna also said the ECZ had invited monitors from all the nine political parties contesting the elections to witness the arrival of ballot papers on Thursday.
He said it was important for all the parties to be represented during verification of the ballot papers and to make sure that they had people stationed at all the polling stations on elections day.
Mr Akufuna said the ECZ had trained enough polling station officers to ensure that people with disabilities and senior citizens voted without any challenges.