IT’s breaking news that the PPP/C won the election by a wide margin and not by the so called slim majority as put together by GECOM. My reason for saying this is information gathered from individuals present at the polling stations in Region 4. My contacts indicated that at the close of polls 2011, when the count was made the PPP/C was way ahead in the race for those stations they were officiating however, figures changed when doors were closed and rigging, yes rigging took place. My contacts confirmed that the presiding officers at those polling booths could not countenance the reality of a PPP/C win in Region 4, hence they said and this is verbatim “we gat to help we bay Granger” So many of the Statements of Poll (SOP) at these polling stations would not match the preliminary count which clearly shows a PPP/C victory and not the other way round. For this fact the PPP/C’s campaign manager kept calling on GECOM to release the preliminary results, failing which there should be a verification exercise. Now, a verification exercise takes time and with such a tense atmosphere PNC/APNU hooligans were in no mood to listen; violence was imminent. It would have been a rehash of 1997. Consequently, the PPP/C had to settle for a loss in Region 4 sacrificing their well-earned victory at the expense of the violence factor.

The situation was so blatant that Lumumba having news of the goings on there visited the polling stations himself. What he saw was PPP/C officials locked outside while the stuffing of the ballot boxes was being done inside. This led to a violent confrontation between Lumumba and that PNC/APNU official. Why should party officials be locked out of a process they were meant to observe in the first place? We are all aware of the answer to that question: the PNC/APNU was back at their nefarious duties. As the saying goes, old ways die hard and this aptly describes their behaviour this election. Lumumba who by the way is a former member of that party was incensed by their blatant disregard for clean, above- board conduct. Who can know these people better than one of their own; he was once part of that rigging machinery. This led him to lose his cool and violently react to that out-of-place officer. No wonder the APNU people hate him so much they are irately opposed to him standing in the way of APNU earning a ‘thiefing” victory.