FORMER second deputy speaker of the National Assembly Mwimba Malama has wondered why UPND was accusing the PF of vote buying when the former ruling party does not have money and depends on well-wishers.

In an interview, Malama accused the UPND of dishing out money to voters in Kabwata Constituency.

He said people should not have a wrong perception that PF had money because the party actually struggled to put together campaign funds for Kabwata.

“The only thing worrying me is the propaganda about this government, it is them who were at polling stations giving money to those who were going to vote. But on social media, they changed the story because they are experts on propaganda that PF were giving out money when we struggled so much to even find that money to campaign. How can we start buying voters? The money that they were saying we were buying voters according to them, that is why they arrested those cadres, it is not true and we needed that money. People should not have a wrong perception that we have money, let them go and check from the accounts of the party, there is no money!” Malama said.

“The money that we talk about when it comes to the organisation of this party, comes from well wishers within the party including members of parliament. Imagine if we asked MPs to contribute K10,000 each, how many MPs do we have? We have about 60. And speaking as a campaign manager, we spent less than K600,000. And how can someone say we had money to distribute to the voters? And they arrest the innocent boys for a misunderstanding.”

Malama said he went to report UPND to the police because the Kabwata by-election was marred with intimidation.

“We went to the police to put it on record through the Office of the Inspector General (Lemmy Kajoba) that these elections were marred with intimidation. The results showed us that to some extent, they were not free and fair. We met the deputy IG because the IG was busy. As usual, the deputy said ‘we will look into that. We are following the elections in Kabwata and they will ensure that there is no violence’. But despite assuring us, the vehicle for honourable (Stephen) Kampyongo was broken, they almost killed him,” he said.

“Had it not been for the people who were alert to ensure that he was protected, today we would have been talking about something else which is very sad. All the voters were being intimidated. The UPND instead of standing at a distance of 100 metres, they were about 20 metres away from the polling station. We were defeated in Kabwata not because the elections were free and fair. Just try to find out how many people are happy with the results in Kabwata. Except you know that Zambians are good people, they usually ignore certain things and move on. When they do that, don’t take them for granted.”

Malama said the UPND should not think that they were special because Zambians could also rise against them.

“Let the UPND respect what the President has said in terms of cadreism. He doesn’t want violence, insults and intimidation. Only that in Africa we don’t learn. PF lost because of the same cadreism, they are doing the same thing. Yesterday (Thursday) at the totaling center, a cadre was pointing at a police officer. Is that not provocation? I think people should learn to respect police officers. They seem not to learn and Zambians are watching, they rise when they see that these people need a lesson. They rose on UNIP, MMD, they did the same on PF, they should not think that they are special and they cannot be kicked out of power. It is not too late they can still put things in place because they are just five months in government,” said Malama.