ZAMBIA Conference of Catholic Bishops secretary general Fr Francis Mukosa says there is a low turnout of voters in the Kabwata by-election because of lack of sensitisation by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) on the exact poll day.

Speaking after inspecting Chilenje Community Hall, Thursday morning, Fr Mukosa said being a working day, most people were expected to cast their votes in the afternoon.

“The situation is more or less the same in all the polling stations I have been through. I have noticed that at least in all the polling stations they managed to open in time and they have observed that the turnout is quite low and they are expecting more people to come in the afternoon but so far, a few people have cast their vote. In one of the polling stations, they mentioned two major factors; they are saying probably being a working day, and people have gone to report for work and then probably they will come in the afternoon,” said Fr Mukosa.

“And for the youths, probably those who are able to vote have maybe gone to school and they expect them to come in the afternoon. Secondly, they mentioned that there has not been much sensitisation by ECZ, they were saying some people did not know exactly which day the votes would be cast. All they could have seen were these political campaigns but from the side of ECZ, they were saying there was not much sensitisation. So, people were not certain, they did not exactly know which day until maybe the last few days. But otherwise, they are hopeful that in the afternoon, there will be more people coming through.”

Meanwhile, Chilenje Hall O4 presiding officer Viena Chifube said 50 registered voters had voted by 08:45 hours.

“We opened the station at exactly 06:00 hours. And so far, the turnout, we have more than 50 voters that have cast their votes. We have 843 registered voters in all the stations. We hope for the best,” said Chifube.