By RABECCA CHIPANTA and SYLVIA MWEETWA –
THE Patriotic Front (PF) and the Rainbow Party on the Copperbelt have bemoaned the continued vandalism of billboards by suspected members of the opposition.
Speaking in an interview, PF Copperbelt chairperson Stephen Kainga said it was unfortunate that despite several calls by stakeholders, the vice of vandalising political billboards had continued.
Mr Kainga said there was need for members from all political parties on the Copperbelt to co-exist to avoid experiencing cases of political violence that have rocked some parts of the country.
“We have received reports that people are vandalising our party billboards in Chingola and Chililabombwe, looking at the issue of vandalising of posters especially on the part of PF and UPND people need to stop doing that. It is bad for both parties.
We need to co-exist and see each other as partners especially on the Copperbelt where we don’t usually experience issues to do with violence. We should maintain that and move on as political parties regardless of which party one is affiliated to,” he said.
Mr Kainga said there was need for parties to respect one another as such vices had the potential to breed violence.
He reiterated his earlier calls for people to conduct issue based campaigns in a peaceful manner.
In Kalulushi the Rainbow Party  has  expressed  concerned over the continued  removal of  campaign  posters  for its candidates  and called on the  police  to be proactive  and ensure those  involved are  brought to book.
District Youth chairman Ephraim Chenje  said  that  Rainbow Party had remained  peaceful in all its  campaigns but wondered  why  some of its  opponents were  trying to  provoke its  members by removing the posters  considering that it spent money.
He said the party believed that  there would still be Zambia  after August 11 elections and  that it did not want to be  engaged  in violent  acts  like was the case with other political parties.
He said the party had since lodged a complaint with the Zambia Police in the  district   who have  assured that they would  investigate the matter.
He however, asked the police to speed up the investigations to  stop the acts and his party’s   investigations  revealed that  the removal of campaign posters was beng done  in the early  hours  using unregistered motor vehicles.
Recently  Copperbelt  police chief  Charity Katanga  appealed to political parties to be tolerant to each other and  urged them against  removing  campaign posters to avoid  conflicts.