BCP, BDP point fingers over by-election violence
Lindiwe Mozola | Thursday January 26, 2017 15:39
In an interview with Mmegi after the by-election, BCP deputy campaign manager, Onneetse Ramogapi claimed ruling party operatives had terrorised BCP voters during the elections. He said the BDP had inserted marshals at every entrance of the polling stations to “scare and instill fear in voters”.
“The war nearly erupted at the UCCSA polling station after some of our voters were threatened by the BDP marshals not to vote but nothing was done by the presiding officers,” said Ramogapi. He further claimed that BDP activists had been seen distributing voters’ rolls at the polling station, which was also against the law.
“They (BDP) were so desperate for a win and they went against the law. Fortunately, God was on our side as all their tricks did not work this time.
“What was even disgusting was that the presiding officers did absolutely nothing with such misconduct,” said Ramogapi, who is a former BDP councillor.
For his part, the presiding officer in charge of the elections, Ernest Phiri, brushed off the BCP’s allegations.
Phiri, who is also the deputy District Commissioner for Palapye, said according to his observations, everything had gone well and the elections were free and fair.
He said the only problem encountered was that those who had voted or were not voting failed to abide with the law that they should be 200 metres away from the polling stations.
“Time and again we would chase away people who came close to the polling stations. From my observations, this was the only problem, otherwise everything else went well.
“I worked well with the campaign managers for both parties including Ramogapi. There were no official complaints from the BCP as he alleges,” he said.
The BDP’S campaign manager, Gabagopole Sebele, dismissed Ramogapi’s allegations saying in fact Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) activists had been violent during the elections. The BCP is affiliated to the UDC.
Sebele, who is also the councillor for Lerala West, said UDC functionaries brought all sorts of weapons to the polling stations including knobkerries and sjamboks.
“Time and again they threatened us and one of them even told me that he was going to kill me. Somehow we are happy that we lost because had we have won, many BDP members were going to lose their lives.
“Some of them were heard uttering words such as “go swa modomi today, re to bolaya motho” (we are going to kill a democrat today).
“What worried us the most was that outsiders were the ones who behaved that way, not Palapye residents. I really feared for my life,” he said.
Sebele said they were forced to engage their people to control the violence, after noting the aggression from UDC members and the lack of response by law enforcement.