Councillors urged to explain online voter registration

PATRIOTIC Front councillors must help sensitise the people on the online voters’ pre-registration exercise and rebut misleading statements from opposition parties and other quarters,” Kitwe Deputy Mayor Chando Mbao has said.

He said councillors were grass root leaders who were expected to give accurate information to the people regarding the online voters’ pre-registration exercise being conducted by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).

Mr Mbao, who is Riverside ward councillor, said in Kitwe yesterday that civic leaders and PF officials should get down to refute the lies and propaganda over the online voters’ pre- registration initiative.

He said some opposition leaders had been spreading lies that the pre-registration exercise was aimed at stopping the opposition members from voting in the next year’s election.

He said such statements were misleading and should not be entertained by any right-thinking and peaceful Zambian. “I thought I should hold a meeting and encourage my fellow councillors to be loyal to the party and President Edgar Lungu especially that we are heading towards 2021 elections.

“One of the points I emphasised was that councillors should get down to the grass roots and refute the lies from the opposition UPND that the online voters -preregistration was aimed at barring UPND members from voting in next year’s election. These are lies which should not be entertained,” Mr Mbao said.

Mr Mbao said despite the council being suspended, councillors had remained loyal to the party and leadership and it was important that the trend continued.

He said councillors should get closer to the people and ensure that developmental projects proceed at an acceptable rate

Mr Mbao said developmental projects like road rehabilitation and others were a true indication that the PF was a caring party.