Just another day in Africa where the talk of free and fair elections is nothing new. Only this time the result that has come from these free and fair elections is significantly different from what Africans say they have come to know ‘free and fair’ elections to be.
Africans have know elections to often yield results that don’t align with the majority’s general sentiment with regard to the country’s leadership. There have been various speculations on how some African leaders have rigged elections to stay in power. Whatever the case is, elections are often a stressful time. In Zimbabwe, members of the electoral board have had to receive counselling to help them deal with the trauma of the ‘free and fair’ election period.
Many thought Zambia’s elections wouldn’t be any different. However, you can imagine the celebrations that are currently underway as the opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema had a landslide victory of 2,810,777 votes against Edgar Lungu’s 1,814,201.
The freeness and fairness exhibited by these elections came so unexpectedly even for the now former president, Lungu. According to Lungu, the elections were not free and fair. Just as the common narrative goes, Lungu is said to have had plans to rig these elections like some African leaders are said to do. However, YouTube is now flooded with videos of voters showing no mercy to those that were caught with pre-marked ballot papers.
Those in the comment section of the videos showing the merciless treatment of people caught in possession of pre-marked ballot papers, attributed the election result to the unity of the citizens. Their strong will of saying enough is enough and working together to stop any corrupt activities pertaining to the elections was applauded.
View some other comments on this matter below:
So to sum it up, “unity” of the voters and taking collaborated action is said to be the major reason why the alleged rigging plans failed.
What are your thoughts?
Let us know in the comment section below.
2 comments
Comments are closed.