THE Die is cast for residents of Kabwata constituency to elect a new representative to Parliament until 2026.
With nine candidates jostling for the seat, the election emanates from the death of Member of Parliament Levy Mkandawire of the United Party for National Development (UPND) on November 18, last year.
The election comes as a test to the voters in one of the densely populated areas under Lusaka Province, with 108,729 registered voters in 131 polling stations.
The candidates and their political parties have, from December 28, last year, to yesterday 18:00 hours, crisscrossed the constituency, conducting political rallies, road shows and undertaking do-to-door campaigns to woo votes in an election initially scheduled for January 20, 2022, only to be rescheduled because of a last minute withdrawal from the race on January 7, by United Progressive Party (UPP) candidate Francis Libanda, compelling the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to call for fresh nominations.
Candidates and their parties have delivered their messages to convince the electorate on how they intend to develop the area through social economic development, youth and women empowerment programmes, social security as well as promote unity by working together as a community.
They have promised to address various challenges such as inadequate drainages, poor waste management systems, and scarce school facilities, among other issues to the expectant residents.
The peaceful environment that characterised the campaigns is impressive and an indication that one can compete for political office without resorting to violence.
Kabwata has shown that it’s about competition of ideas and not competition of which candidate or party has the strongest thugs.
This is commendable.
We echo the voice of various stakeholders, that despite a few cases of political violence at the onset of the campaigns, the overall conduct of the campaigns was impressive and an encouragement to Kabwata residents to turn out in numbers to vote in peace.
In the same line, we equally urge the political players to continue observing peace to ensure a credible election today because peace is important to growing Zambia’s democracy. This will prove that future general elections can be peaceful.
Those contesting include Democratic Party (DP) candidate Fred Mubanga, Chilufya Tayali of Economic and Equity Party (EEP), Kennedy Muyowa of the New Heritage Party, the Socialist Party’s (SP) Tripher Ng’andu, and Clement Tembo of the Patriotic Front (PF),
Others are Engiwe Mzyece of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), Sydney Zyambo of People’s Alliance for Change (PAC), Patriotic for Economic Progress’ (PeP) Henry Muleya and UPND’s Andrew Tayengwa.
After all is said and done, Kabwata residents should turn out in large numbers to cast their vote and may the best candidate carry the day.