FORMER Mpulungu PF member of parliament Freedom Sikazwe says he will consider petitioning the election results from the constituency where he lost to UPND’s Leonard Mbao because he is not happy.

In an interview, Sikazwe said the results did not reflect the will of the people because the campaigns were marred by violence perpetrated by UPND.

He said he was disappointed with the parliamentary election results, stating that even people could not believe that he actually lost.

“We are considering petitioning the election result in Mpulungu because we are not happy at all. You can call any person in Mpulungu, they will tell you. If some of us had put our foot down to say let us just call a spade a spade, there would have been bloodshed. So the results that came out do not reflect the results. People were not given a chance to do what was needed. There was total intimidation. The most disappointing part was that people were doing things with impunity,” Sikazwe said.

“I can tell you that as I speak to you, I am not in Mpulungu because everyone is being intimidated there. You can call any official from PF, they are not in Mpulungu. The guys have destroyed property, even our campaign center has been ransacked and damaging vehicles so that is not an election which you can call free and fair. To me, the most disappointing part was [that] every time we wanted to come in to try and console or calm down the situation, we were all intimidated, that we are not supposed to do anything. Anyway, we shall see the way forward.”

Sikazwe further said PF polling agents were also unfairly chased from polling stations.

“What caused the violence is that it was a planned move by our colleagues the UPND. It was a planned move by the colleagues to try and intimidate people in our strongholds. I am very disappointed with the results and that is why even people cannot believe it because those guys were nowhere. And another thing that I have come to learn is that in most of our wards in the outskirts of the district, our officials were chased. So we are just compiling a report on who were chased. Our agents were told that the documents they had were invalid but it is the same document that they gave everyone. Anyway, we will see,” he said.

Sikazwe expressed concern that the number of people that turned out to cast their vote did not tally with the number of registered voters in the constituency.

“We were talking about the results yesterday and what I can tell you is that you can call the people in Mpulungu and find out what is happening. We are all very disappointed because those were not elections at all. I did not want to talk about the negativity but I can tell you those were not elections at all. If you go there in Mpulungu, the people have deserted the area because of the intimidation. We are waiting to see the voting pattern and the voting percentage. We registered more than 54,000 but less than 12,000 voted. Just 12,000 to 15,000 voted,” said Sikazwe.

“There was total confusion and intimidation. I am sure you heard and you know the history of what happened. Mpulungu was part of the constituency whose campaigns were suspended because of the violence. The violence that took place during the voting day, the intimidation that took place, we are not happy at all. We are not happy and the people are not happy. I have been receiving calls but I have said let us give it time and we see the way forward. Otherwise, it is terrible. The injustice that took place there cannot be accepted there. It reached an extent where people started even complaining about the behaviour of the police that they were not helping at all, that even the presence of the soldiers could not help. So we are waiting to see the way forward.”