PF wins Lubansenshi as UPND toasts Solwezi West victory

The Ruling PF has won the Lubansenshi Parliamentary by-election, while the opposition UPND has taken the Solwezi West seat with a landslide victory.

PF candidate George Mwamba was declared winner of the election by returning officer Christopher Simusokwe around 01:30hrs this morning after polling 4879 votes to beat his closest rival, independent candidate, Charles Chimumbwa who got 2463 votes.

UPND candidate Patrick Mucheleka is third with 1895 votes followed by MMD’s Gabriel Mulenga who has polled 479 votes.
Rainbow Party’s Daniel Mubanga is least with 200 votes.

This is from the 11, 332 votes cast out of which 92 were rejected from the 33 existing polling stations.

The Lubansenshi Parliamentary seat which fell vacant after the Supreme Court nullified the election of the then area Member of Parliament Patrick Mucheleka has 20, 000 registered voters.

And Qfm staffer Albert Mpezeni reports from Solwezi that UPND’s Teddy Kasonso has been declared winner of the Solwezi West parliamentary by-election after amassing 8541 votes.

PF’s Martin Mbaya came a distant second with who has polled 2635 votes with UNIP’s John Njombi trailing in third position with 121 votes. 178 votes were spoilt.

And the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) has described the Lubansenshi Parliamentary by-election as billionaire game kind of an election.

FODEP Executive Director Macdonald Chipenzi says his organization has taken note that political parties that had more money found it easy to woo electorates while parties with less money found it difficult.

On the other hand the Southern African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) has expressed concerned that the campaigns for the Solwezi West by-election were marred by police brutality.

Executive Director Boniface Cheembe has told Qfm News the running battles that took place between the police and UPND members may have had an impact on the electorates’ morale to turn up to vote.