PF Shutting Down Mobile Phones and Internet to Rig Elections – Source As part of an ambitious electoral rigging formula, officers from the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) working within ZICTA will shut down and reduce mobile phone and Internet data service in the five constituencies, a source close to the intelligence wings informs Zambia Reports. The disruption in phone service will take place in Solwezi Central, Zambezi West, Vubwi, Kasenengwa and Mkushi South, as PF teams work to import 500 to 1,000 pre-marked ballots per constituency, the source said, with the purpose of preventing observers and opposition parties from reporting the rigging exercise. Some areas will have no coverage, while others will have only diminished coverage thanks to OP interference at ZICTA. The move by the Office of the President (OP) to aggressively rig the five elections comes down as a direct order from His Excellency President Michael Sata, placing pressure on the new PF Secretary General Edgar Lungu to deliver the vote, the source said. “H.E. is determined to prevent Mulusa and Kakoma specifically from getting back into parliament. He said that they are ‘corrupt’ without any further explanation and demanded that they be defeated at any cost necessary,” the source said, indicating that these were the instructions given by President Sata to Lungu during their flight to Mkushi. There are also reports that the PF intends to buy votes on a massive scale, deploying more than $250,000 provided by Finance Bank Chairman Rajan Mahtani and an additional $75,000 from party coffers. In Solwezi Central, the source says that a Mrs Nkonde was by press time at Moba Guest house dishing out money to those going to vote at a near by polling station. Former Solwezi Mayor, a Mr. Kapamba, has strategically located himself some few meters from Kyawama market also vote buying. The final technique used in the rigging formula is the tampering with electronic voting results, the source says. In a sudden move, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) announced a last minute decision to debut an electronic voting system in the Kasenengwa and Vubwi election results in Eastern Province which has been strongly criticised by the opposition Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). The source indicates that the PF has contracted the Israeli technology firm NIKUV International Projects Ltd., which has gained a reputation for allegedly organising massive rigging exercises in Zimbabwe. zambiareports/2014/09/11/pf-shutting-mobile-phones-internet-rig-elections-source/
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:25:41 +0000
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