By ADRIAN MWANZA
POLITICAL Parties should refrain from the habit of ferrying cadres to areas that are holding by-elections because this is a recipe for disaster, Chiengi Member of Parliament Given Katuta has demanded.
Ms. Katuta in an interview said that there had been a tendency by politicians to ferry people to various areas where they were elections as a way of intimidating and beating up opponents.
She called on political parties taking part in the elections to desist from this trend because a number of people had lost their lives as a result.
She said Chiengi had not recorded any violence in elections and hoped that this would be the case even this time around when people go to the polls on May 2, 2024 for the Munwa Ward polls.
She however said that there was one minister who always caused problems whenever there was a by-election.
She said that history had shown that the said minister was the architect of violence in a number of areas he was present.
“We hope that Chiengi will not be turned into a war zone because some ministers are known to be the ones that bring cadres where there is an election,” Ms. Katuta said.
She said that the people of Chiengi were peaceful and that there was no need to cause havoc during the by-election as politicians needed to compete on ideas and not violence and that the time for anarchy had long gone.
“Why should people maim each other? What is needed is for them to compete on ideas and not violence,” she said.
The Munwa Ward election will see United Party for National Development (UPND) candidate Famous Chelu compete with Osias Telela from Leadership Movement (LM), Lewis Kalenga from the Socialist Party (SP) and Elias Chishala from the Christian Democratic Party (CDP).