Sampofu hails peaceful elections
KATIMA MULILO – Zambezi governor Lawrence Sampofu has hailed what he termed ‘peaceful and fair’ elections. Speaking to Nampa on Friday, Sampofu said there were no reports of intimidation, fighting or removal of any property, posters or campaign material of political parties as compared to previous elections. “The elections were very peaceful.
I really want to thank our people for being mature and conducting the whole election business peacefully. This shows political maturity,” he said. Sampofu added that as political leaders in the region, they preached that people should not fight or take the law into their own hands during this election period. The governor said there were only minor glitches on the voting day, related to either malfunctioning equipment or shortage of ballot boxes, situations that were quickly dealt with. Sampofu expressed disappointment in the low voter turnout throughout the region, saying people missed an opportunity to democratically express themselves.
“Katima Mulilo Urban has about 14 000 registered voters, but only about 3 000 turned up. Even the other constituencies had a very bad turnout. I do not know the reason behind this, it is something we need to look at seriously and get to the bottom of,” he said.
He said there will be a serious postmortem at both government and party (Swapo) level to determine why there is so much voter apathy in the region, something which had not happened before. “We only started seeing this in 2019 ( Presidential and National Assembly elections) and this year. I honestly do not have an answer as to why people are not voting. Maybe it’s service delivery, maybe they are just tired of voting, I don’t know,” he explained.
Sampofu, however, thanked those who voted and promised to work hard with the incoming political leadership, while paying tribute to the outgoing office bearers.
“To the outgoing councillors, this does not mean you cannot play a role in the development of the region. You should work together with the incoming councillors, share ideas and strategies that you had before you left,” he said. He congratulated the incoming councillors and urged them to work hard and repay the people’s trust.