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Political parties hopes for good in Mpongwe
Ndola, February 22, ZANIS ——-The opposition MMD has expressed confidence of defending their Mpongwe parliamentary seat in the on-coming Mpongwe parliamentary by-elections.
ZANIS Ndola reports that MMD candidate Miniver Mtesa said this during an interview in Mpongwe yesterday.
Ms Mtesa also said the party squabbles in the MMD would have no effect on the Mpongwe by-election as the MMD in Mpongwe were united and behind the leadership of Dr Never Mumba.
Ms Mtesa said she was optimistic of victory as she was the only female candidate in the race.
“I am going to win. Iam the only female so I will get all the female votes while the male votes will be shared among the four other candidates. Our campaign team has been boosted by senior party officials such as Ambassador Marina Nsingo who is with us right now as we are going in the field for campaigns, Iam confident of getting this seat, people here still want MMD,” she said.
Ms Mtesa further said the campaigns were generally free and fair save for some isolated cases of violence from the opposition UPND.
“The campaign is free and fair, the police are doing a good job, we are only hearing of isolated cases of violence from our colleagues in the UPND,” she said.
And UNIP candidate Kenny Kuveya said his party was ready for the February 28 by-election, adding that he was a man on the grass root.
Mr Kuveya said people of Mpongwe were behind UNIP and that they had seen that UNIP was the only political party that was interested in developing the country.
PF candidate Gabriel Namulambe said the party had done its ground work and were ready for the elections.
Mr Namulambe said the people of Mpongwe had realised that the opposition was in total confusion and have since decided to work with the ruling party.
“The people here have realised that there is a lot of confusion in the opposition. The opposition is in total confusion, so people here have decided to work with the ruling party,” he said.
Mr Namulambe further said it was his first time to see an influx of people who are not Mpongwe residents being ferried to Mpongwe by the opposition.
“We have had elections here before but this is the first time I am seeing the opposition ferrying people to this place, I wonder why they are ferrying them here because they are not eligible to vote, so why ferry people here?” he asked.
The PF candidate further revealed that unknown people had deflated tyres of his campaign vehicles while some were removing his campaign posters, incidents that he said had since been reported to the police.
He further said the PF were a party whose campaign was issue based and even if they are being provoked by the opposition they would not retaliate.
“As PF our campaigns are issue based so these opposition that know that they are losing even if they provoke our cadres we are not retaliating, we have told our cadres to concentrate on issue based campaigns, we have something to offer to the people while they do not have,” he said.
And NAREP candidate, Reagan Njobvu said the campaigns were going on smoothly and that he was confident of scooping the seat.
Mr Njobvu further said the police case that he had was misconduct and not assault as reported by some media institutions.
“Let me clear the air on that assault issue. I have not been charged with assault, I am appearing in court for misconduct so I don’t know why some media are reporting that I have been charged with assault,” he said.
Meanwhile UPND candidate Rabson Chilufya said his campaign team had prepared adequately for the election and that they were confident that they will scoop the seat.
“We have prepared ourselves adequately, my campaign team is working tirelessly, even our party president Mr Hakainde Hichilema is here with us,” he said.
The Mpongwe parliamentary seat fail vacant after incumbent Gabriel Namulambe resigned from the opposition MMD to join the ruling Patriotic Front.
