TONSE ALLIANCE PRESS STATEMENT ON ATTEMPTS BY THE RULING UPND PARTY TO RIG THE KAWAMBWA PARLIAMENTARY BY-ELECTION
Kawambwa-Zambia, 19th December 2024
1. The TONSE ALLIANCE has unearthed an elaborate illegal scheme by the ruling UPND party to rig the Kawambwa Parliamentary by-election against the TONSE ALLIANCE Candidate, Mr. Danstan Mwansa who is standing on the New Congress Party (NCP) ticket.
2. The scheme is made up of two aspects. The first aspect, which is already in motion, involves UPND officials and some senior Government officials, buying National Registration Cards (NRCs) and Voters Cards from voters at K100 per voter. These documents are then kept at a designated house near a Polling Station, and the voters are told to go to this designated house on polling day, to collect their documents before they can proceed to go and vote.
3. The plan is that on voting day, a UPND supporter will visit a Polling Station as one of the very first people to vote, but instead of casting their vote, they will simply put the ballot paper into their pocket and walk out to the designated house where confiscated NRCs and Voters Cards are being kept. At this designated house, the stolen ballot paper will then be pre-marked and given to a voter together with that particular voter’s NRC and Voter’s Card. The voter then goes into the Polling Station with the pre-marked ballot in their pocket, collects the unmarked ballot from Polling Staff, and when they go into the Voting Booth to cast their ballot, they simply cast the pre-marked ballot and walks out with the blank ballot paper, back to the designated house. The blank ballot paper is then pre-marked and given to the next voter, together with their documents. The process is repeated over and over for the entire voting day.
4. The second aspect of the UPND planned rigging scheme in Kawambwa involves bribing opposition Polling Agents and Election Monitors with K300 each. At some point during the vote counting process at a Polling Station, the opposition Polling Agents and Election Monitors will be asked to leave the Polling Station and go outside, so that only UPND officials and Polling Staff will remain in the Polling Station. At this point, UPND officials plan to temper with the ballots cast in favour of the TONSE ALLIANCE Candidate, Mr. Danstan Mwansa, by writing something on these ballots which will render them ineligible and considered as Rejected Ballots.
5. The above two rigging schemes were narrated to us by voters in various Wards of Kawambwa Constituency, who have been approached by the UPND to participate in these schemes, and some of whom have actually been paid already, to be part of these schemes. At this point, we are yet to establish whether the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the Zambia Police Service are part and parcel of these rigging schemes.
6. In order to protect the votes of our Candidate, Mr Danstan Mwansa, from manipulation and rigging, as well as in order to preserve the integrity of the entire Kawambwa Parliamentary by-election, the TONSE ALLIANCE has put in place vigorous counter-measures designed to thwart the UPND rigging schemes. To begin with, the ALLIANCE has established a hotline for the Kawambwa community to report any suspicious activity on voting day. Numerous Rapid Reaction Voter Protection Teams, each headed by a Member of Parliament, have also been put in place to quickly react to any reported cases of suspicious behavior, either at a Polling Station or at a house. Our Polling Agents and Election Monitors have also been appropriately trained on how to detect malfeasance at the Polling Station and how to report such malfeasance to the established hotline, so that the Rapid Reaction Voter Protection Teams can respond accordingly. Voters coming out of a Polling Station shall also be monitored in order to establish that they are not going back to a specific designated house which is coordinating rigging schemes.
7. The TONSE ALLIANCE wishes to take this opportunity to inform both the Electoral Commission of Zambia and the Zambia Police Service, that our Rapid Reaction Voter Protection Teams reserve the right to demand that certain individuals who behave suspiciously at Polling Stations, be searched on site, so as to determine that they are not carrying any pre-marked ballots or participating in any way in the rigging schemes.
8. The Electoral Commission of Zambia together with the Zambia Police Service are hereby further warned that should they refuse to accede to demands for a search of suspicious characters at Polling Stations, the Community reserves the right to effect a citizens arrest of any and all persons suspected to be taking part in a rigging scheme, including Polling Staff where necessary. Whatever the case, the TONSE ALLIANCE shall ensure that no UPND rigging scheme comes to fruition in this particular by-election. This shall be done at any cost necessary. TILI TONSE 🤝
ISSUED BY:
Sean E. Tembo
PeP President and TONSE ALLIANCE Spokesperson
Kawambwa, Zambia