Claim
On 12th August 2021, Patriotic Front (PF) Media Director Antonio Mwanza claimed on his Facebook page that United Party for National Development (UPND) cadres murdered PF Chairperson for Northwestern Province Jackson Kungo. Mr. Mwanza said Mr. Jackson Kungo was murdered by UPND cadres who descended on him at a polling station in Solwezi as he took voter registers to the PF polling agents at the polling station. He added that all political parties are required by ECZ to buy and provide voter registers to their polling agents.
Rating Justification
The fact checking process has established as inconclusive the claim by Mr. Mwanza that PF North Western Provincial Chairperson Mr. Jackson Kungo had been murdered by UPND cadres. While the death of Mr. Kungo was confirmed by the Police and other stakeholders, the fact checking process could not find any verifiable evidence that Mr Kungo was killed by UPND cadres and that he was delivering voter registers. In a statement on 12th August 2021, President Edgar Chagwa Lungu confirmed that PF Chairman Jackson Kungo died in the afternoon of 12th August 2021. The PF said at the time of his attack, Mr Kungo had been sent to distribute voter registers to the PF monitors at Kyawama polling station in Solwezi. However, contrary to that statement, the Northwestern Province Police Commissioner stated that Mr. Kungo went to vote at Kyawama polling station when it was suspected that he was carrying pre-marked ballot papers, before the residents pounced on him. A call with a polling monitor further disputes this allegation by the police that Mr Kungo was set to vote at Kyawama polling station as he was not registered to vote from there. There are therefor three different versions of Mr. Kungo’s presence at the polling station. iVerify cannot confirm that the group of voters are UPND cadres or affiliated to UPND or any other political party because there is no proof that the alleged mob was dressed in UPND regalia nor identified themselves as such. An analysis carried out by iVerify shows that one of the polling day offences by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) includes putting up a political notice or sign or being clad in political regalia within a radius of 100 meters of a polling station during polling day. It would therefore render it difficult or close to impossible to have an individual in political regalia at a polling station. To confirm this, iVerify made a call to a polling assistant at Kyawama polling station who confirmed that no voter was allowed entry into the polling station whilst clad in or being in possession of political regalia or sign, conclusively disqualifying any claims of political identification.
