Luanshya PF member of parliament Steven Chungu on Friday told the people of Kasununu branch of Roan constituency that they will be cursing themselves and their families if they vote for the opposition after promising to elect the ruling party candidate.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Steven Kampyongo told the people to reject the NDC candidate so that party leader Chishimba Kambwili can know that he does not have people in his pockets.

Speaking at a campaign rally in the area, Chungu, who is also government chief whip in Parliament, told the people that God was watching them as they were making their promise to vote for the PF candidate, hence they should not lie to him, warning that he would curse them.

“God won’t give you things in your hands, He will just open up opportunities for you. Today he has chosen this person (PF candidate) to come and work for you, the rest is in your hands because you are the ones who open your hearts on the voting day. The only thing I am asking from you is that you should look to heaven, as we have sat here, God is seeing us. Whoever is lying here, God is seeing, you will cause curse even upon those who are not yet born in your families if you are telling God lies. If we promise each other here that we are going to do this but you don’t do what we have agreed, what I say always comes to pass; you will cause curse upon your families,” Chungu said.

“Here we have about 200 + votes, at least you should give us 200. Don’t give any to the opposition. Because even Jesus when he was going back to His Father, he had told people ‘don’t cry for me, cry for yourselves.’ We want to give you a leader whom you are going to work with, we won’t be here if you don’t choose a good leader, we won’t be here when you will be shedding tears. We want to take you closer to President Lungu . ‘Uyo uwaitalusha kuli ba Lungu ninshi akana nokwela’ (Whoever keeps a distance from President Lungu won’t benefit).”

And Chungu said the by-election in Roan was caused by Chishimba Kambwili due to his confrontational way of doing things.

“You didn’t have representation here because the person you had as MP abandoned his work and started seeking the presidency. Hence you had a huge gap, now we have a by-election which has been forced by your former MP. It is not government that has caused the by-election, it is your former MP because he has no ears and respect for leaders. He will be coming here to tell you lies, but no one can bring development here without going through the President. That person he has brought here can’t bring development because he won’t be able to lobby [to] the President. The former MP failed to work for you because he was not in good terms with the President,” said Chungu.

And Kampyongo accused Kambwili of making himself rich and forgetting about the people in Roan.

“You chose someone to be representing you in parliament like all of us were elected, but when he went there, he forgot his duties. Where you see me here even if I am a minister, my power does not go beyond the people of Shiwang’andu who elected me. I can’t just go now and tell them that I don’t want this position which you gave me, I now want to be president. You need to have done a lot of good work to seek the presidency. Now if you look at what’s happening here, would you say that person who was your MP can be Republican president? You elected that person here, but he turned against the President and started insulting him,” Kampyongo said.

“He could not even be ashamed of himself for failing to deliver development and help to improve peoples’ living standards. He has been busy boasting, he has become rich alone and now he is very fat that he can’t even walk properly. People are [going] through challenges but he has only been benefiting himself. Don’t make us pompous as politicians by not holding us accountable, because that make some politicians to start thinking that they have people in their pockets. He is even boasting that ‘I will easily get the votes in Roan’.”

He added that Roan Constituency was not developed because Kambwili was too arrogant to be advised by fellow MPs.

“Mu Parliament mulya tulalanshyanyako amashiwi ifyakubombela abantu, nomba ulya muntu mwakwete ali ni chumbu munshololwa (We advise each other in parliament on how to serve people, but the man you had here was too arrogant to be advised). He only concentrated on removing rail slippers. People now have their eyes open, they know the crookedness of politicians. Make sure you teach him a lesson on the 11th so that he knows that you are the ones who have power,” said Kampyongo.

Meanwhile, PF candidate Joel Chibuye promised to complete the construction of a school and to end the water problem in the area.

“I am asking for an opportunity to serve you, make sure you remove the thief who was here. You might think that the President is not working but the President has been working tirelessly to deliver development but because you had no good representation, you have missed out. I have identified lack of a school here and lack of clean drinking water as major problems. When you elect me, I will make sure that I move quickly to address these challenges,” promised Chibuye.