By NCHIMUNYA MIYOBA in Lufwanyama
Voting in the Lufwanyama local government by-elections in the five wards in the district is underway with most polling stations opening at 06: 00hrs.
The by-election in the five wards has been necessitated by the resignations of the five United Party for National Development UPND Councillors earlier this year.
The five wards Mushingashi, Kansanta, Luswishi, Milompa and Chibanga are been contested by only two political parties the UPND and the ruling Patriotic Front (PF).
Chibanga ward which has the biggest population has seven polling stations with a total of 1, 723 registered voters.
The ward has attracted political leaders from both provincial and district level taking an interest in monitoring the elections.
In Chibanga ward the UPND has fielded the only female candidate Chewe Kabanda against Evans Chipupu of the PF.
St Joseph’s primary school polling station which has two streams had a fairly good turn up this morning with a total of 295 votes cast by 10:00hrs.
St Joseph’s primary school Presiding Officer Alfeyo Nyirenda said the two streams opened at exactly 06: 00hrs with stream one recording about 90 votes while stream two had 70 votes.
Mr Nyirenda said he is happy that the ward had enough security from the Zambia police giving voters an assurance.
At Chapula polling station which has 894 registered voters voting started at 06:00hrs with a good turnout.
By 10:30 hours over 200 had cast their vote with four booklets used out of seventeen.
Chapula polling station Presiding Officer Chibale Mulumbwa disclosed that they had special cases of eight names not found in the register, four cases of wrong names, three cases of voters without National Registration Cards and five cases of wrong polling station on the voter’s cards.
Ms Mulumbwa said PF candidate Evans Chipupu had already cast his vote while his component Chewe Kabanda had not.
In Luswishi ward at Nchakwa polling station voting opened at exactly 06:00hrs with a poor turn out.
As at 1000hrs 27 votes were cast.
So far no violence has been recorded in all the wards as Police is keeping vigil.
