THERE was chaos on Saturday morning at the Lusaka District totalling centre, Nakatindi Hall, where two ECZ polling agents were accused of allegedly tempering with the election results.

Police officers came to the rescue and dragged the polling agents to the Civic Centre holding cells after the two were almost beaten by opposition political party election observers.

Addressing journalists, Saturday, Lusaka Central UPND’s Mulambo Haimbe said something looked fishy as the ECZ was delaying to declare him winner.

“The Commission was saying we look back at the results and correct the errors. What does that mean? It means the commission is trying to go against the law and correct the results that came from a polling station. You cannot do that. Once results are announced at a polling station, if there is a dispute about it, if there is someone who is unhappy, they must go to court. It is only a petition that can deal with that. I got over 31,000 against 23,000 for Margret Mwanakatwe. The question that everybody should ask is will the remaining polling stations make a difference, no. She will never catch up. So we are wasting time. Who are they trying to serve by wasting time? Something looks to be fishy and we are unhappy. We want the declaration of the candidate who has succeeded now or else it becomes illegal. They are quickly moving into the realm of making this election appear not to be free and fair,” he said.

However, all this was overlooked and Lusaka Central constituency Returning Officer Sandra Nanyangwe later declared Haimbe as the duly elected MP after he scored 32,008 votes.

PF’s Margret Mwanakatwe came out second with 23,384 votes.

And speaking shortly after being declared winner, Haimbe said he was ready to serve the people of Zambia.

“This is a momentous occasion for people of Lusaka Central. They have been crying for the last five years that they want a person to represent them and start to take care of their interests and this is what we have started. We are ready to serve as the UPND team. We are all here in order to show our willingness to serve. That is what makes me elated. The primary task is to be part of the team that will bring Zambia back to what it was. It is to work closely with my president Hakainde Hichilema, the incoming president. We will make sure that Zambians make our lives much better. For the people of Lusaka Central, there are so many issues that are going wrong. The social welfare such as water garbage, they look simple but critical to the well being of people of Lusaka Central,” said Haimbe.