AN ETHNICAL REVOLUTIONAL VOTE Following the just ended bye-elections which saw PF President, Hon Edgar C Lungu ascend to Republican Presidency, many aftermath observations have been drawn and conclusions made with the most prominent one being the votting pattern in Southern Province! As Zambians saw votes being counted and announced in the early stages of the election, mostly in PF strong holds, one could cleary see a low voter turn-out and a significant improvement in the opposition,the UPND in particular! The opposition though were losing, their loss was reasonable and the margins were quite ussual as always with the opposition, the UPND in particular, commanding a strong second in MOST if not ALL PFs strongholds. Yes the gap between PF increased drastically as ECZ kept announcing results in PFs strongholds but it would not be long enough before Zambians would come to witness an unbelievable voting pattern which would come from Southern Province! As votes in Southern Province started coming in, people were reluctant to be critical as they thought it was the ussual but when about 9 more constituencies were announced indicating unbelievable margins and almost instantly counter-attacking over 40 constituencies in PF strongholds, everyone got concerned needless to state, even Non-PF members! At one point a rulling Presidential candidate had to get a ZERO at one of the polling stations in the region and had to be in the range of 4-590 votes in most polling stations let alone constituencies against their Sonss 2000-35000 votes. Zambians from other regions wondered what type of voting pattern had occurred in the region, they wondered if Zambians from other Regions were Stupid or just too compassionate to vote for their SON where as they could not do the same but opted to give other candidates ZEROS! Zambians in general wondered what such incredible figures and wider margins could realy mean! In the country where peace and unity is at the core of the countries existence, one could vitually witness DIVISION and TRIBALISM of the HIGHEST ORDER taking place as votes for Southern Province kept coming! I say that was more than TRIBALISM, the voting pattern in Southern Province was and is an ETHNICAL REVOLUTION! The votes in Southern Province can not be described as Tribal votes but revolutionary votes where an ethnical group feel oppressed for a long time and now want to air out their grievances by also sending a clear message that even them can produce a President just like other tribes whom they have accused of having a superiority complex, more in particular the Bembas! The votes in Southern had nothing to do with credibility of the candidates but more to do with counter-attacking their oppressors! If one would say that HH was a better candidate than Edgar Lungu then the intelligence and rationale of Zambians in 7 provinces should be questioned for voting for Edgar Lungu in contrast to 3 provinces which voted for HH! The vote in Southern Province and the surrounding areas was a vote of unity, to claim what they feel,think and trully believe has rightfully belonged to them since 1964 and that is the Zambian Presidency! Yes a revolutional vote was cast and figures are there for ALL to see, many thanks to other ethnical groups who did not turn up in large numbers to vote for their respective sons but were Zambian enough to vote for any candidate who made sense to them. Some people have claimed that Edgar Lungu did not campaign in Southern Province,that his government has neglected farmers in that region and worse off the PF(Government) buget allocations does not include them that much as such there is basically ZERO development in the area especially in Monze hence his ZERO votes he was having. On the contrally, the opposite is true, the PF government has tried in every way possible to develop Southern Province and much of the Government budget allocations is towards infrastructure development in the area, if someone is disputing this then tell me, where do we find the state of the art road network in the whole country with billions of kwacha spent on it? Southern Province! It is a fact that before UPND was formed, the people in the region were flexible and voted for different candidates but ever since UPND was formed with their Sons as leaders, the votting pattern in the region has been more or less the same showing no flexibility at all! Are people in the region telling me that all other candidates before Hon Edgar Lungu were still not leadership material? Because just like Hon Lungu, they equally lost in that region, talk of Comrade Mwanawasa,Comrade Rupiah and our very own loved Comrade Sata, they all suffered defeat in the region where as in other provinces, flexibility has been the order of the day, so when people point out flaws in what is happening in an area, it does not mean they hate that place but they want that area to change and be more united with other regions let alone tribes! In conclusion, it must be said that the ethnical revolutional vote cast in Southern Province counter-attacking their percieved oppressors has left many psychological and emotional scars to other parts of the country. The votting pattern in Southern Province has greatly shaped the way future votes will be cast and trust me, this will not end soon, the problem with this though is that with the trend Southerners have set to vote for your OWN regardless of who it is, it will be very difficulty for them to Produce a republican President because even those who believed in them or want to believe in them from other regions will see their weakness and would not want to associate with them meanwhile other regions which dont have their SON will unite and vote against them making it more dificulty for them even to come close second as evidenced in the just ended elections! Like the British High commissioner to Zambia put it, Zambia is divided and these elections have left the country more divided, one could only hope that the pending future elections will be based on merit and credibility of leaders but with other regions producing revolutional votes worse off protest votes, such hope will only be illusional! ALL in ALL, Zambia is bigger than any tribe but as things stand, with the way votes keep being distributed in the country, it needs some devine intervention for Zambia to be a totally united state!!!!! My regards,, PDM!
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 06:57:15 +0000
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