By MAIMBO MWEEMBA
Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) says the PF, socialist, UPND and others spent k10 million on billboards in June.
TI-Z executive director Maurice Nyambe says their monitoring of presidential candidate billboards for the month of June in 12 districts across all 10 provinces revealed that Lusaka has the majority of billboards in Zambia.
“Out of a minimum of 674 presidential candidate billboards found in the 12 towns, Lusaka accounted for 79.5% or 536 billboards in total, with Ndola second on that list with 38 billboards or 5.6% of the 674 found in the 12 districts. Other notable districts were Chipata with 25 billboards, Choma and Kitwe with 10 each, Solwezi with 17, Mongu with 9, and Kabwe with 16,” he said.
Mr Nyambe said their findings also revealed that Chinsali did not have a single presidential candidate billboard in the month of June.
“In terms of the distribution of presidential candidate billboards by political party in the 12 districts, our analysis revealed that for the month of June, the PF accounted for the majority of billboards at 58%, followed by the Socialist party with 18% and the UPND with 14%. The DP, NAREP and PAC collectively accounted for less than 10% of all presidential candidate billboards in the 12 districts for the month of June,” he said.
Mr Nyambe added that in terms of expenditure for the month of June, the six political parties spent a minimum of K10.366 million on presidential candidate billboards across the country.
He said out of that figure, the PF accounts for at least K6.05 million, followed by the Socialist party at K2.26 million and the UPND at K1.31 million.
Mr Nyambe said that the least spending on presidential billboard advertising for the month of June was by NAREP at K60, 000.
“As we have noted, it is our hope that these findings will give citizens and interested stakeholders an idea of how much political parties are spending to try and win votes ahead of the 12th August elections. TI-Z’s monitoring of campaign expenditure will continue as we head towards the 2021 general elections,” he said.
This is according to statement issued by TI-Z executive director Maurice Nyambe.
