MWENSE IS FOR UPND - CHINYANTA
THE popularity of the United Party for National Development (UPND) has become so superior that the Patriotic Front (PF) is faking violence in Mwense where they thought the ruling party would never penetrate, John Chinyanta has said.
Mr Chinyanta, the campaign manager in the Mwense Local Government by-elections has told the Daily Nation that the UPND is confident of grabbing the position from the PF because the ruling party has been accepted across all the districts in Luapula. Mr Chinyanta who is a member of the National Management Committee of the UPND said the violence that erupted in Mwense was at the instigation of the PF and that the ruling party was only on the defensive.
He said the PF were crying foul because according to him, the former ruling party was on its way to extinction as the people of Luapula had moved on with the UPND.
He said calm has since returned to the peaceful district after the violence that erupted which saw some of the PF members hacked and bloodied.
Mr Chinyanta stated that the UPND was a peaceful party and that it had never adopted violence as the modus operandi of campaigning and winning of elections.
“Yes there was a fracas and it was in the night.
People were throwing stones and we do not know who was hurt and who was on the offensive. But what I can tell you is that the UPND is winning this by-election just like we did in Kwacha and Kabushi.
We are grabbing the position because the UPND has become the party of choice in Mwense. There was no firing of guns and the gunshot that people are talking about was fired by a police officer who was manning the bank,” Mr Chinyanta said.
And Mr Chinyanta has accused the PF of pulling down posters for the UPND and that the matter had been reported to the conflict resolution committee where a meeting had been held between the two rival parties.
He claimed that the former ruling party was playing provocative politics but that the UPND were hesitant to retaliate because it was protecting the peace that the district had been enjoying.