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The United Party for National Development (UPND) Secretary-General, Batuke Imenda, has warned the Tonse Alliance that law breakers will not end well as this brings them in conflict with the law, accusing them of causing violence during the Petauke by-election on Saturday.
Imenda threatened that the UPND would formally report the perpetrators to the police so that law and order is maintained.
According to Imenda, Members of the Tonse Alliance attacked the UPND campaign camp in Minga Ward of Petauke.
“After sensing danger that they would lose elections, Tonse Alliance started their old politics of violence and intimidation by attacking innocent citizens. Law breakers will not end well as this brings them in conflict with the law.
“We call upon the Zambia Police to strongly execute their mandate to save the lives of the Zambian people and bring the perpetrators to book. If this is their plan B, we will meet them fairly and squarely as you are operating from the wrong side of the prison gates,” he said in statement issued on Sunday.
Imenda said UPND would not allow the same PF tactics of violence in elections as this behaviour keeps citizens from exercising their civic role to freely vote for candidates of their choice.
He noted that President Hakainde Hichilema’s position on violence had been candid from the out set and he will not be shaken from this position.
The UPND, he said, remained a staunch supporter of a violence-free electoral system as this shall remain a beacon of a successful democratic dispensation.
“We remain resolute to ensuring that all by-elections are free and fair devoid of the Patriotic Front (PF) violence which Zambians rejected in 2021. Electoral violence should never again form part of our Electoral system as was the case under the PF.
“It is for the above reason that from the time the UPND took over leadership, sanity has been restored in Zambia’s electoral system, and this is not by accident, but by design as this is the message which resonated with the people of Zambia when we were campaigning to take over the mantle of leadership,” Imenda added.
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