More thumping for Mwanawasa from Sata

As the elections result continue to be announced there is more sad news for the incumbent Levy Mwanawasa.

In Lusaka the presidential results show the magnitude of the thumping the MMD and Levy Mwanawasa have received from Sata. In Chawama Sata had more than 20,000 votes with Levy at 8,000 while in Kabwata Sata had more than 25,000 votes with Levy at 7,000.

Similar results have been reflected on the Copperbelt, Northern and Luapula.

Levy Gets a thumping from Sata

Ruling MMD presidential candidate Levy Mwanawasa, who based his campaign on his economic success appears headed for a massive loss in the September 28 elections.

Mwanawasa has lost in Lusaka where most of the seven parliamentary seats have been won by Michael Sata's Patriotic Fron party.

Mwanawasa has also lost in Kitwe, Mufulira, Luanshya and Chililabombwe while results for Chingola and Ndola are being awaited.

The defeats on the Copperbelt have been with margins that are landslide and will be difficult to recover from.

So far Sata and the Patriotic Front has won in two other provinces - Northern and Luapula - while the party also has a fair share of votes in Eastern and Livingstone.

It is now a matter of time as to when Mwanawasa will concede defeat.

Sikota Wins in Livingstone

United Liberal Party president Sakwiba Sikota has retained his parliamentary seat in Livingstone.

Speaking in an interview with the privately owned Muvi TV Sikota said he was happy that the people of Livingstone had re-elected him.

"I love the people of Livingstone and I know that they also love me. That is why they have re-elected me," Sikota said adding that he was aware that in the past it has been difficult for any sitting Member of Parliament to retain the seat.

Honourable Sikota broke away acrimoniusly from the United Party for National Development (UNDP) following its convention to elect a new leader after the death of Anderson Mazoka.

Sikota formed his United Liberal Party which went into an election pact with Michael Sata's Patriotic Front and have since won most seats in Lusaka and the Copperbelt.

It is still to be seen whether Sikota's party will scoop the majority of seats in Western province where several UPND members in the former parliament resigned from the UPND at the same time.

Is is this the start of a rising star for Sakwiba Sikota? Will his link with the "King Cobra" yield results?

Welcome President Michael Sata

After yesterday's vote it has become obvious that Michael Chilufya Sata will be Zambia's next president.

Results in Lusaka appear to favour Sata as he has swept the poll with a margin of 3 to one in some places. Besides results from outside Lusaka - especially on the Copperbelt, Northern, Eastern and Luapula are showing that Sata is the favoured presidential candidate.

Parliamentary results in Lusaka also show that Sata's patriotic Front is on the road to sweeping the seven seats in the city.

In Kabwata constituency Given Lubinda won with a comfortable landslide, similarly in Lusaka central Guy Scott was on the way to winning the seat.

Sata takes Early Lead

The results of the presidential elections started trickling in last night (September 28).

The Mail, a government owned newspaper indicated that Sata of the patriotic Front was leading in polling districts in Lusaka, Copperbelt, Luapula, Eastern and Northern provinces.

 

And results announced on QFM showed that Sata led by a very high margin followed by Hakainde Hichilema in second place and Levy Mwanawasa of the ruling Movement for Multimparty (MMD) in third.

 

In some polling districts like the University of Zambia Sata polled more than 1,800 votes to Hichilema's 1,100 while in others the ratio was one to three.

 

In Ndola at Red Cross Sata had 999, Levy 306 and Hichilema 306 while at Kabushi Sata had 683, Levy 418 and Hichilema 84.

 

In Chingola at chingola Arts Sata had 889, Levy 192 and Hichilema 142. In Northern province at Kasama's Chipani polling centre Sata had 677, Levy 180 and Hichilema 60.

 

It appears these are signs that Levy Mwanawasa has been rejected by voters and by the end of today - September 29, it will be clearer who will be Zambia's next president.

 

It is likely that Michael Chilufya Sata aka King Cobra, will be the next president and the Chinese Government must prepare their position - will they remain in Zambia or will they leave?

 

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All Eyes on the Ballot Box

Many thousands of Zambians turned out to cast their vote on September 28

In Lusaka, every polling station was inundated with people as early as 03.00 am waiting for the polling stations to open at 6.00 am local time.

 

In the Mandevu constituency of Lusaka, Olympia Park school has three polling stations of Olympia North, Olympia East and Olympia South opened with long ques of people, all anxious to cast their vote. I estimated the number of voters at 70 percent and this appeared to be good news for Michael Sata, one of the five presidential candidates.

 

At Ngwerere school within Mandevu constituency, there are more than 20 polling districts. Here too, the turnout was quite high and many talked of being in the boat - the symbol of Michael Sata.

 

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TRASH CANDIDATES OR WHAT?

Dear All,

 

Mr. Derrick Sinjela has challenged the Zambian community media to take sides and make their views known in this year’s Zambian presidential election. I have therefore taken some excerpts from today editorial on one of Zambia privately-owned paper The Post for us to discuss and analyze.

 

“Sata is a reckless opportunist who would sell anybody and anything for politics. Sata will not hesitate to divide any group or people if that will give him power - he is a very decisive character.

 

“Zambians should not be cheated by people who are promising to look after them after they failed to do so when they were in the office. These people want to return to office in order to continue their plunder of natural resources. Whatever we do, we should not give GIVE people our VOTE so that they plunder our economy again.”

 

Quote from the Zambian Post Newspaper entitled DON’T ALLOW THIEVES TO GOVERN 19/09/06 in reference to Mr. Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front, Zambia ’s leading political party in this year’s election.

 

Specifically I would like our academicians from the schools and departments of journalism and media studies to tell us what they think about the challenge that Derrick threw to us and advise how we should go about this issue.

 

I would also like to hear the views of other media institutions about this approach. Should we trash candidates in an election and influence voters to vote for our preferred candidate?

 

Elias

 

The Coordinator

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Journalists Talk

hi everybody,
i equally zarina's comments on this very important matter. i feel that as we go to the polls in a few days' time journalists in the country should be seen to be above board. let us  conduct ourselves in a professional manner stop being partisan and siding with anybody let the public be the final judge. posterity will judge those journos that are siding with politicians.
abash unprofessionalism
i rest my case
evans.
 
zarina geloo <zgeloo@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hi all,

 I read the Post editorial and like Mervin i think an opion is just that,We know the Post and its leanings. There is an interesting conundrum here. The Post and Sata are tight, the post is un movable (if there is a word like that) when it comes to corruption. Sata says he will review the charges against Chiluba et al with a view to dropping them because like many, there appears to be a lot more questions than answers. so how does the post treat its best friend in these circumstances?i think they had no choice but to hammer Sata - but I suspect Sata probably saw the editoral before it was published in a way of letting him know what was coming. As for journos being partisan where did tht come from? a journo's job is to report not make decisions for others.

Mervin Syafunko <syafunko@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Elias,
I did not want to get involved in this partisan debate
but the comment you have circulated has provoked me.
The idea is, as journalists and ethically speaking, we
are not to take partisan sides in the course of our
duty. And over this matter, anyone who went to a
journalism school worth its sort should not argue
about it.
AS INDIVIDUALS in our private capacity we can support
a candidate of our choice.
As for the comment in the Post it's a pity I cannot
read the whole comment hear in Windhoek on the net
since they have now commercialised the online version
of the Post.
However from what you jotted down I don't think there
is anything wrong with the editorial. The Post as an
individual entity is simply telling the masses of what
it thinks Sata is capable of doing. Actually I wonder
why it has taken so long for them to say it out.
Look without being subjudicial, it's clear that
Chiluba is facing serious criminal charges and Sata
says he is going to quash all the cases FTJ is facing
once he gets into power. Honestly where does this
leave the judicial system? They are the only competent
organ to decide whether the guy is innocent or not.
Why should it take the president (that is if Sata
wins) to pass the judgement.
As responsible journalists we should raise these
issues without having to take the role of cadres.
The comment by the Post is not misguided. As
journalists we should not forget so easily. Look at
what happened in Chawama when Sata led a pack of
panga-wielding MMD cadres to go attack voters who were
opposed to the MMD and have you forgotten about the
K2billion that was hauled from National Assembly to
fund the MMD conenvetion in Kabwe not very long ago.
Sata, Machungwa and late Mandandi were behind the
scandal. The scandal are too many to tabulate!
The good thing about the Post's comment is that it is
not campaigning for any candidate like Derrick is
campaigning for Sata.
So long for now,
Mervin
--- Zacomef Project wrote:

> Dear All,
>
>
>
> Mr. Derrick Sinjela has challenged the Zambian
> community media to take
> sides and make their views known in this year's
> Zambian presidential
> election. I have therefore taken some excerpts from
> today editorial on
> one of Zambia privately-owned paper The Post for us
> to discuss and
> analyze.
>
>
>
> "Sata is a reckless opportunist who would sell
> anybody and anything for
> politics. Sata will not hesitate to divide any group
> or people if that
> will give him power - he is a very decisive
> character.
>
>
>
> "Zambians should not be cheated by people who are
> promising to look
> after them after they failed to do so when they were
> in the office.
> These people want to return to office in order to
> continue their plunder
> of natural resources. Whatever we do, we should not
> give GIVE people our
> VOTE so that they plunder our economy again."
>
>
>
> Quote from the Zambian Post Newspaper entitled DON'T
> ALLOW THIEVES TO
> GOVERN 19/09/06 in reference to Mr. Michael Sata of
> the Patriotic Front,
> Zambia's leading political party in this year's
> election.
>
>
>
> Specifically I would like our academicians from the
> schools and
> departments of journalism and media studies to tell
> us what they think
> about the challenge that Derrick threw to us and
> advise how we should go
> about this issue.
>
>
>
> I would also like to hear the views of other media
> institutions about
> this approach. Should we trash candidates in an
> election and influence
> voters to vote for our preferred candidate?
>
>
>
> Elias
>
>
>
> The Coordinator

---

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Vote for WHO?

 

A journalist’s job or media institution is to help analyze, critique and report objectively on the happenings of their country in the hands of Politicians. The masses too have their own perspective in giving an analysis on the analysis (excuse my repetition) given even by the most respected media analyst or reporters.

I know the temptation of siding with one candidate lingers on journalists (some), but the Common Good Theory here should prevail and the Common Good is to let people cast that precious vote in a weeks time regardless of the consequences of their choice. Am sure all the media houses have done their best to educate and inform people through interviews with candidates as well as rally reporting. Who ever the people feel has a good agenda, will carry the day next week, whether the voting will be emotive or based on analytical and issue based campaign.. they would have cast the vote.

 

Its times like these that the Media, the Church, Government and NGOs need to realize that it is the common man, woman and youth who owe it to themselves to cast a vote based on their informed conscious through voter education.

 

And anyone of us may fall in any of the above categories (Man, Woman, Youth, Media, Church, Government or NGO). Cast your votes too on your best ‘practical judgment’ (Prudence).

 

Good luck to mother Zambia as those votes drop in the transparent boxes next week. My prayer of good wishes as you take on this challenging and daunting task of decision making for the glory of mother Zambia !

 

Fr. Freeborn.K - writing from TEXAS USA

 NB - Taken from a discussion on the Zacomef community media chat.

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