MATERO PARLIAMENTARY RESULTS HALTED AMID DISPUTED FIGURES

By Wellingtone Kasonde, The announcement of parliamentary election results for Matero Constituency has come to a standstill at the Totalling Centre following a dispute over discrepancies in the figures being presented by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ). The dispute centres on Tonse Alliance candidate Patrick Salubusa, who has questioned the results being announced, saying […]

By Wellingtone Kasonde,

The announcement of parliamentary election results for Matero Constituency has come to a standstill at the Totalling Centre following a dispute over discrepancies in the figures being presented by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).

The dispute centres on Tonse Alliance candidate Patrick Salubusa, who has questioned the results being announced, saying they do not correspond with figures collected by his campaign team and polling agents.

Salubusa claims that results from approximately 35 of the 107 polling stations in the constituency have been mixed up or allocated differently from the results obtained by his team.

He alleges that some results belonging to him have instead been attributed to his main opponent, UPND candidate Alex Sakala, contributing to Sakala taking the lead in the ECZ tally.

He says the number of discrepancies is too significant for the announcement to continue without verification.

Alex Sakala, however, has rejected the claims, saying he is not interested in character assassination and is confident in the figures collected by his own team.

The dispute comes as both candidates maintain that they have won the Matero parliamentary election.

On Friday, August 14, Salubusa announced on social media that he had won the seat based on his team’s parallel voter tabulation.

Meanwhile, the UPND announced Sakala as the winner earlier today, August 16.

The ECZ has also not officially declared the winner of the Matero parliamentary election.

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