Shakafuswa declared winner after a long wait…Helicopter took long

Shakafuswa addressing his supporters

There was panic among UPND members after the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) delayed to declare its candidate Jonas Shakafuswa as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Katuba parliamentary by-election that took place on Tuesday, reports our Correspondent.

By 11pm on Tuesday results collected from all the polling station showed that the UPND candidate had scooped the heavily contested poll. But ECZ could not declare him as they waited for ballot boxes from three polling stations.

The Zambia Air Force Helicopter that went to collect the ballot boxes took long causing panic on the UPND camp that had started celebrating as early as 8pm on Tuesday. They accused the ECZ of allowing the PF of wanting to rig the results.

But ECZ said the Chopper had difficulties locating the three polling stations.

Shakafuswa was only declared dully elected shortly after 10am on Wednesday. Returning Officer Mutabi Mwanamulye  announced that the UPND candidate polled 4781 with his closest rival Moses Chilando of the Patriotic Front (PF) polling 2, 747.

Third was the Cecil Holmes of the MMD who got 734 while Joseph Mushalika of NAREP came fourth 566 votes.

Fifth was Fr. Frank Bwalya’s Alliance for a Better Zambia (ABZ) candidate Patricia Mwashingwele with 393 votes. She was followed by Allan Malawo of UNIP who managed 124 votes. Cozmo Mumba’s National Revolution Party’s Shakespeare Mwakamui trailed and only managed 23 votes.

The Returning Officer announced that a total of 9481 votes were cast and 113 were rejected.

Katuba constituency was previously held by MMD and fell vacant after its Member of Parliament Dr. Patrick Chikusu who was also serving as Deputy Minister in the PF government passed on.

Shakafuswa has held the seat before first under the UPND ticket from 2001 to 2006 and later under MMD from 2006 to 2011. He lost to Dr. Chikusu in 2011 polls.